Student Paper Competition/Travel Award to Attend Joint Statistical Meetings

For the list of this and previous year winners, click here.

2012 SBSS Student Paper Competition

The Section on Bayesian Statistical Science (SBSS) of the American Statistical Association (ASA) is sponsoring a student paper competition for research on Bayesian methodology. Bayesian methodology is to be widely interpreted, including applied, computational, and theoretical work. This paper competition is for completed research, and a manuscript suitable for journal submission is required to enter the competition. Winners of the competition will receive partial support for attending the 2012 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) in San Diego, CA.

Eligibility

To be eligible to participate, the candidate must have been a full-time student (undergraduate, Masters, or Ph.D.) on or after September 1, 2011. The candidate must be first author on the paper, and the advisor or other co-author will need to write a letter stating that the candidate had primary responsibility for the research and write-up. The candidate must be a member of SBSS (see here) or the ISBA (International Society for Bayesian Analysis). Those candidates who have previously received travel support from SBSS are not eligible to participate. Application materials

The following materials are needed to enter the competition. The deadline for application is Dec. 15, 2011. Please note that the deadline this year is much earlier than in the past! A major change in the procedure for entering the competition this year is that students are not required to first submit a contributed topics paper abstract to the 2012 JSM. Formal application should be made in electronic form to Professor Peter F. Thall (e-mail: rex@mdanderson.org), including:

* A curriculum vita.
* A letter from the major professor (advisor), verifying the student status of the candidate and briefly describing the candidate's role in the research and writing of the paper.
* The paper, in .pdf format.

Selection of winners

Papers will be reviewed by a committee determined by the officers of the SBSS. Criteria for selection will include, but are not limited to, significance and potential impact of the research. Decisions of the committee are final, and will be announced in the Spring before the JSM. As noted on the ASA website http://www.amstat.org/sections/studentpaperawards.cfm, after the SBSS winners are selected, they will be notified January 15, 2012, and then must submit abstracts and register for JSM by February 1, 2012 through the official JSM abstract submission system.

Prizes

SBSS anticipates awarding several prizes in the competition. Prizes will consist of a certificate to be presented at the SBSS section meeting and partial support for attending the JSM (in amounts to ensure participation, up to $1,000 each maximum). The awards may be unable to cover the entirety of any winner's travel, so winning candidates may need to supplement the SBSS award with other funds. To receive a monetary prize, the winner will need to provide proof of membership and submit travel receipts to the SBSS treasurer (Jerry Reiter, email: jerry at stat.duke.edu) after the JSM.

Peter F. Thall
SBSS Program Chair-Elect
Department of Biostatistics Unit 1411
University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
1400 Pressler Street, PO Box 301402
Houston, TX 77230-1402, USA
Office: FCT4.6014
Phone: (713)794-4162 
Fax: (713)563-4243
Email: rex@mdanderson.org

Last modified by Mayetri Gupta
(email: gupta at bu.edu)
Feb 3, 2012