SSAI Canberra Branch Meeting 2011 Knibbs Lecture and Annual Dinner
In honour of Knibbs' impact on statistics in Australia, the Statistical Society of Australia Canberra Branch Inc. holds an annual named lecture. This year we are very fortunate to have Professor Chris Field followed by two discussants.
Date: Tuesday 29 November 2011
Time: 5.00pm Refreshments in Room 1175A, John Dedman Building, ANU Campus
(http://campusmap.anu.edu.au/displaymap.asp?grid=gh32)
5.30pm Lecture in Haydon-Allen Lecture Theatre (The Tank), ANU Campus
http://campusmap.anu.edu.au/displaymap.asp?grid=ef32
7.30pm The annual Canberra Branch dinner will be held afterwards at Taze 4/ 21 Genge St, http://taze.com.au/. The cost of the 3-course dinner will be $45. This is a subsidised rate, with the society covering the cost of drinks and a small subsidy for the food. It is essential to book for the dinner. This is the Branch's final function for the year and we would like all members and friends to come and make this an enjoyable end to the year.
Please confirm your booking for this dinner with Ray Lindsay by cob Friday 25 November. Payments will be collected on the night.
Knibbs Lecturer:
Emeritus Professor Chris Field
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Discussants
Emeritus Professor John Robinson, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney
Associate Professor Gavin Huttley, Division of Immunology and Genetics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, ANU
Topic: Robustness issues in molecular evolution and marine ecology
Abstract
In this talk, I will outline my perspectives on robust statistics indicating some of the key ideas. The focus will be on developing robust statistical procedures for modelling biological processes with particular interest in molecular evolution and marine ecology. This research is motivated by close collaboration with researchers at Dalhousie in these areas. In both these settings, the standard models are approximations to reality and the data itself can be quite noisy and subject to outliers. Both factors indicate a strong need for procedures which work well for neighbourhoods of the putative model and are not unduly influenced by outlying observations, namely robust procedures.
In molecular evolution, we are interested in estimating the phylogeny and will be considering approaches which build in various types of robustness against deviations from the working model. In marine ecology, the focus is on tracking data and the appropriate modelling approaches. Again I will examine the robustness issues and techniques to build robustness into the models.
SSAI Canberra Branch: Knibbs Lecture
Sir George Handley Knibbs Kt, CMG (1858 - 1929) began his career as a surveyor in the New South Wales Survey Department. He was interested in education, and in the fashion of the times, was a poet conversant with several languages, ancient and modern, an artist, philosopher and lover of music. He taught mathematics and physics at the University of Sydney and later became Director of Technical Education for NSW. It was he who instituted the Official Year Book; throughout his tenure as Commonwealth Statistician (from 1906 to 1921) he maintained his strong mathematical and statistical interest in population problems, and published The Mathematical Theory of Population, first separately in 1917 and later as an appendix to the Report on the Australian Census of 1921. He was much concerned with the Malthusian theory that population would outgrow food supplies, a threat which has become even more serious today.
Knibbs retired in 1921 to become Director of the Institute of Science and Industry; He was succeeded in 1922 by Charles H. Wickens (1872 - 1939) who had also joined the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics in 1906 from Western Australia.
Ray Lindsay
Secretary Canberra Branch