## 2003 Annual Alumni Newsletter

July 24, 2003, 12:00AM

Thoughts from
Rob Kass

What can I tell you? Well, for starters, the folks (faculty and staff) you knew during your time here are nearly all still around. Possibly a bit wiser. Definitely a bit older. I myself this year passed a major milestone: I turned 50. To most of you who may be looking ahead with some curiosity about this age let me just say that it's really a wonderful time of life, particularly if you think you'll enjoy having a colonoscopy. I don't want to complain too much about my bodily functions, and the inevitable slowing down, but the other day I asked my school-aged son Nico if he wanted to go for a little jog with me, and he said, "Sure, Dad, but can I bring a book?"

## Department Receives NSF Grants

July 18, 2003, 12:00AM

The Department of Statistics has received a five-year, $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to fund the Vertical Integration of Research and Education in the Mathematical Sciences (VIGRE), a training program for undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows that helps meet America's burgeoning need for statisticians who are trained to do interdisciplinary scientific research. The overriding objective is to train students to solve a scientific problem by translating it into a statistical question, then explaining the results so they can be understood by the scientific community. The program also prepares graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to be university-level statistics instructors. The long-range goal of VIGRE programs nationwide is to increase the number of U.S. citizens who pursue the mathematical sciences. Statistics has also received a two-year,$50,000 grant from the Eli Lily Foundation to fund its Summer Undergraduate Research Internship Program. In partnership with Morehouse College in Atlanta, the department brings undergraduate minority students to Carnegie Mellon, where they spend eight weeks engaged in...

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## Seventh Workshop on Case Studies of Bayesian Statistics

July 7, 2003, 12:00AM

September 12-13, 2003
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

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* SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT *
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The Seventh Workshop on Case Studies of Bayesian Statistics will take
place on September 12th and 13th 2003 at Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh, PA.

The Workshop will feature in-depth presentations and
discussions of substantial applications of Bayesian statistics to
problems in science and technology, and poster presentations of
contributed papers on applied Bayesian work. In conjunction with the
workshop, the Department of Statistics' Seventh Morris H DeGroot
memorial lecture will be delivered by Stephen Stigler. Please see

http://www.stat.cmu.edu/bayesworkshop

Please register and submit contributed poster abstracts via our
webpage. Some travel support is available to workshop participants and
we especially want to encourage young researchers, women,
underrepresented minorities, and the handicapped to attend and apply
for support...

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