Our first session is on Tuesday 6 September at 4.30pm. The session is titled ‘Confronting risk: Statistical perspectives on life, death and disaster’. Chaired by Timandra Harkness, author of Big Data: Does Size Matter?, the session promises three fascinating talks:
- ‘How risky is our intuition for risk?’ by Harvard University’s Xiao-Li Meng
- ‘Predictions, disasters and “Dirty Harry”’ by Aston University’s Robert Matthews
- ‘Statistics of disaster near-misses’ by Gordon Woo, catastrophist at Risk Management Solutions
Then, on Thursday 8 September at 3.50pm, conference delegates will get to hear from the three finalists of our Young Statisticians Writing Competition, which is organised jointly with the Young Statisticians Section of the RSS. The three talks, based on the shortlisted written submissions, are:
- ‘On the frequency of America in America’ by Adam Kashlak of Cambridge University
- ‘How to mend a broken heart with stem cells and discrepancies?’ by Hakim-Moulay Dehbi of Imperial College London
- ‘Queen Elizabeth II – an Extreme Event monarch?’ by Anastasia Frantsuzova of City University/St Andrews
Finally, closing the RSS Conference at 5pm on Thursday is the Significance Lecture. This year’s lecture will be delivered by Professor Dame Anne Glover and is titled, ‘Lost in translation – Why statisticians and policymakers need to speak the same language’.
We look forward to seeing you in Manchester, but if you can’t make it, be sure to follow the conversation on Twitter, using the hashtag #RSS2016, and stop by the RSS Conference blog for coverage of select sessions.
