Second Statistics Olympiad
Although Statistics is a young discipline, it has during the last century grown to be an essential body of information based knowledge useful in all areas of human endeavor from individual decision making in daily life to scientists fathoming the mysteries of nature. There will be a great demand in future for statisticians to help in decision making by the government, industrial and research establishments. It is one of the aims of the CRRao Advanced Institute of Mathematics Statistics and Computer Science (AIMSCS) to encourage talented young students , both rural and urban, to pursue professional and research careers in Statistics .To create awareness of statistics and to encourage those with an aptitude for numbers and numerical reasoning to study statistics, Dr. CR Rao suggested conducting Statistics Olympiad on lines similar to Mathematics Olympiad. Following his suggestion, a team of statisticians headed by Dr.T.J.Rao and Dr.S.Bendre organized the FIRST STATISTICS OLYMPIAD, for the first time in India and probably in the whole world, in June 2009 by administering tests to students at the high school/junior college levels in the cities of Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. In all about 270 students took the test. The questions were not routine or conventional type from mathematical statistics , but framed to test the ability of students to cross examine data, detect misuses of statistics, statistical comprehension ,table and chart reading etc. ( all at the respective levels of syllabi) , together with a general knowledge of official statistics expected at the school level. A special grading scheme was devised to discriminate and pick those with an aptitude for statistical reasoning and ability to deal with numbers. The top twenty students were felicitated at a function held on June 29,2009 ,the birth date of Professor Mahalanobis, which is declared by the Government of India as Statistics Day.(The first Statistics Day was observed on June 29, 2007). During the felicitation ceremony , a booklet was distributed giving biographical accounts of three outstanding statisticians belonging to three different generations, namely P C Mahalanobis , CR Rao and SRS Varadhan to serve as role models for the young students in India aspiring to be statisticians.
Encouraged by the success of this, the SECOND STATISTICS OLYMPIAD was held on 5 June 2010 in some more centers and in all 345 at the junior level(grades IX and X) and 61 at senior level (grades XI and XII) took the test. Top scorers in the tests were felicitated on 29 June 2010 on the occasion of the (Fourth) Statistics Day, at a function held in the University of Hyderabad Campus, Prof. C.R.Rao Road, Gachibowli, HYDERABAD, 500046.
With the experience gained so far, a committee is being set up by AIMSCS in collaboration with the University of Hyderabad to cover a larger number of schools from different States of India, and explore the possibility of creating a world forum for Statistics Olympiad on lines similar to Mathematics Olympiad. Statisticians all over the world are requested to offer suggestions for implementing our project. Further details can be had from Dr.S.B.Rao, Director of AIMSCS (siddanib@yahoo.co.in).
News communicated by Drs. S.B.Rao and T.J.Rao
Call for Papers : Journal of Mathematics in Industry. Managing Editor:Vincenzo Capasso, University of Milan, member of EAS Presidium and Executive Committee.
Published in collaboration with the European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry.
The Journal of Mathematics in Industry is a high-quality journal that brings together research on developments in mathematics for industrial applications, including both methods and the computational challenges they entail. Here, "industry" is understood as any activity of economic and/or social value. As such, "mathematics in industry" concerns the field as it actually improves industrial processes and helps to master the major challenges presented by cost and ecological issues.
For the complete editorial board, please visit http://www.springer.com
Professor Edgardo D. Carosella, EAS member and Blaise Pascal Medallist 2009 in Medicine, was confered the French award of "Commandeur dans l’Ordre National du Mérite" on May 14th, 2010.
Professor Jerzy Leszczynski, Polish-American Member of the EAS Receives top Awards from both Countries.
On January 6, 2010, the President Barak Obama honored USA scientists and researchers for their mentoring efforts in the areas of math, science and engineering. Such awards are the highest recognition from the USA government for a small (10 individuals and one institution per year) group of mentors selected from universities, research laboratories and industry. Due to the change of the US administration a ceremony for the group of 2007 year awardees that includes Professor Leszczynski was postponed for two years and carried out this January, along with the ceremony for the 2008 awardees. The enclosed picture features President Obama along with 2007 and 2008 Presidential award recipients during their visit to the White House.
Dr. Leszczynski’s US Presidential Mentor award was complement (also by 2007) Polish prestigious research prize. His scientific accomplishments were recognized by the Polish Chemical Society (PCS) that awarded him Marie Curie-Sklodowska medal during 50th year Anniversary PCS Congress in Torun, Poland that gathers together more than 1400 members and invited guests. Only 10 such medals have been conferred during the 52 years long history of the Polish Chemical Society. The enclosed photograph was taken during his plenary lecture at the PCS Congress.
Dr. Jerzy Leszczynski is a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and President’s Distinguished Fellow at Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, USA. He directs NSF Interdisciplinary Nanotoxicity Center. He is author and co-author of almost 700 research papers that have been cited in scientific literature more than 10,000 times (H Index 45). In addition, he also co-authors more than 50 book chapters. He has edited 22 books for various publishers including Elsevier, Word Scientific, and Springer. To boost visibility of the EAS Annals, as a member of the editorial board he initiated collaboration with the Springer to develop a special issue of the Annals that would be available for the broad scientific community. This initiative resulted in publishing in November 2009 a volume “Practical Aspects of Computational Chemistry: Methods, Concepts and Applications” which was published by Springer and sponsored by the EAS. The book includes 23 contributions from leading computational chemists and is being distributed by the professional publisher network.
Professor Professor Philippe Ciarlet was elected a foreign member of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in recognition of his contribution to developing and utilising mathematical tools to solve critical issues in mechanics and modern engineering, as well as promoting mathematics in China.More...
Prof. Philippe Ciarlet was elected as Fellow of the. S.I.A.M
Fellowship honors SIAM members who have made outstanding contributions to the fields served by SIAM, and he is among the distinguished members of SIAM in the initial class of Fellows.
Using criteria approved by the membership, the initial Fellows were selected from among those SIAM members for which certain previous recognition places them clearly among those intended to be recognized by this program. This included members of certain national academies and corporate and laboratory fellowship programs, recipients of certain SIAM or ICIAM prizes, recent editors-in-chief of SIAM journals, and former SIAM presidents. You can find more information about the program at http://www.siam.org/prizes/fellows/
Professor Ni-Bin Chang
was elected as Fellow in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in last Feb. and attended the ceremony in Washington DC to receive this honor in last April.
May 10th-15th 2008 The Fellow member of EAS, prof. Oleg L. Figovsky is a chairman of the International Congress on Science and Innovation in Civil Engineering "SIB" that will take in Voronezh, Russia on November 10-15, 2008.
May 16th 2008 - Professor Vincenzo Capasso, Fellow Member of our Scientific Committee, has received an Honorary Doctorate of Science in Technology of the University of Lapeenranta (Finland) in recognition of his achievements in promoting European collaboration between academia, technology and society in the field of industrial mathematics, in areas including applied research, educational development and network building.
Our Fellow Member and Blaise Pascal Medal 2003, Professor Eric de Clercq (Belgium), was elected European Inventer of the year 2008 (Ljubjana, 6-7 May).
February, 2008 - Professor Bernard Barbara our Head of Physics Division, is awarded the 'Gentner-Kastler-Preis' by the German Physics Society and the French Society of Physics, for his innovative contributions to magnetism of solids, nanostructures and molecules [Click Here]
January, 2008 - Professor Jean-Marie Andre (FUNDP, Chemistry Department), Fellow Member of the EAS, becomes President of the Royal Academy of Belgium.
December, 2007 - Professor Oleg L. Figovsky, Fellow of EAS in Materials Sciences, has been elected as Honorary Professor of the Voronezh State University (VGASU) for his fundamental and applied research in the field of nanotechnologies for industrial application.
November, 2007 - Professor Philippe G. Ciarlet has been elected as a Member of the Academy of Sciences in the Developing World (T.W.A.S., previously Third World Academy of Sciences).
October, 2007 - Professor Krishnaiyan Thulasiraman has been elected as a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS).
October 8, 2007 - Professor Mario R. Capecchi from the University of Utah, Fellow Member of the European Academy of Sciences, was Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He was honoured together with Professor Oliver Smithies and Sir Martin J. Evans for their work on the development and application of gene targeting' in mice. This technique allows geneticists to target and mutate specific genes and, thus, study the functional role of these genes in the organism. Next to DNA sequencing it is perhaps the most important technique to understand genomes[Read More]
July, 2007 - Professor Nina Fedoroff, the Verne M. Willaman Chair in Life Sciences and Evan Pugh Professor at Penn State University, and an External Professor of the Santa Fe Institute, is one of eight scientists named by US President Bush to receive the 2006 National Medal of Science, the nation's highest award for lifetime achievement in scientific research. The honorees received medals at a White House ceremony on 27 July 2007.[Read More]
June, 2007 - Professor Oleg L. Figovsky was awarded the NASA TechBrief award "50 the best in nanotechnology - 2007"
May, 2007 - Professor Peter Jagers was elected as Vice President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science.