Latest News ~ SSA Events ~ Career Centre ~ Member Contributions ~ Other Events

Welcome to the Latest Edition of the SSA Newsletter

We’re excited to bring you the latest news from the SSA community, and this edition comes with a major milestone—registrations for the Australian Statistical Conference 2025 (ASC2025) are now open! The official conference website is live, serving as your central hub for program updates, keynote announcements, key dates, and ways to get involved.

ASC2025 promises to be a dynamic gathering of statisticians, data scientists, and applied researchers from across Australia and beyond. With the theme Advance, Support, Connect, this conference will celebrate innovation, collaboration, and the evolving impact of statistics in our world. Don’t miss your chance to secure early bird registration and start planning your experience.

As always, we’re also sharing society news, upcoming events, and opportunities to contribute to future issues. Whether you're a student, early career professional, or long-standing member, we’re glad you’re part of this thriving community.

Let’s continue to advance, support, and connect—together.

The Australian Statistical Conference (ASC2025) website is live — and registrations to attend are officially open! Visit www.asc2025.net to secure your place and explore program highlights, venue details, and key dates.

We’re also inviting submissions for contributed talks and posters for both ASC2025 and the Statistical Education Symposium. Abstracts are welcome across all areas of statistics, data science, and their applications — including research, practice, and the teaching and communication of statistics.

Abstract submissions close 15 June 2025, so now is the time to get involved.

We look forward to your participation — whether as a speaker, presenter, or attendee!

The Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) and ASC2025 Scientific Programme Committee are delighted to open nominations for the Horizon Lectures, to be given at ASC2025 in Perth, 1 - 5 December 2025. The Horizon Lectures aim to recognise emerging leaders in Australia’s statistics community and their contributions to advancing statistical practice across academia, government, and/or industry. Lectures will be awarded to mid-career statisticians working in any discipline who have made an impact within their field(s) of expertise and have demonstrated leadership in building capacity in statistical expertise within Australia.

Up to two Horizon Lectures will be awarded for presentation at ASC2025. All Lectures will be presented together as a plenary session to all conference delegates. Lectures can be on any area of statistics in line with the awardee’s expertise. Each awardee will receive up to $2,500 to cover conference and travel costs.

Nominations involve a written statement (up to 1,000 words) summarising how the nominee meets the award selection criteria. Nominees must be a member of the SSA and be employed as a statistician in Australia. Nominations must be supported by another member of the SSA.

Full details on eligibility, award selection criteria and submission are available in the nomination form. Nominations must be submitted by 5pm AEST, 30 June 2025 to asc2025@statsoc.org.au 

Late nominations will not be accepted.

Questions about the Horizon lectures should be sent to ASC2025 Scientific Committee at asc2025@statsoc.org.au

Data science includes analytical, machine learning, and communication abilities, not just coding. This article covers data scientists' essential skills, from processing big data sets to constructing prediction models and communicating conclusions.

With demand rising across industries, these skills will position workers for long-term success.

In the modern digital transformation era, automotive safety has undergone a paradigm shift with the rise of vision-based safety systems.

Mayank Rai, an expert in automotive technology, presents a comprehensive statistical evaluation of these systems, revealing their effectiveness in crash prevention and safety enhancement.

Distinguished Professor Noel Cressie at the University of Wollongong Australia (UOW) has been awarded the Hannan Medal from the Australian Academy of Science:

Noel is Director of UOW’s Centre for Environmental Informatics in the National Institute for Applied Statistics Research Australia (NIASRA) and Distinguished Professor in the School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics. The Hannan Medal, which recognises outstanding research in mathematics including statistical science, is named for the late Professor E.J. Hannan FAA FASSA.

2024 Tjanpi Award for Best Student Paper in Environmental Statistics goes to…

Congratulations to Dilishiya de Silva, winner of the 2024 Tjanpi Award for best student paper in environmental statistics for her paper titled “Model-robust Bayesian design through generalised additive models for monitoring submerged shoals” published recently in the Annals of Applied Statistics. In this paper, Dilishiya and collaborators describe a Bayesian design strategy they developed to optimise sampling for a shoal deep reef system, using innovative methods that are robust to unknown model uncertainty.

The Tjanpi Award is sponsored by the SSA Environmental Statistics Section and comes with a cash prize of $500 and an invitation to present at the next Australian Statistical Conference, coming up in December in Perth. Dilishiya is a PhD candidate at Queensland University of Technology, supervised by James McGree.

This year, we received an impressive number of submissions of an excellent standard. The runner-up was Scott Forrest for his paper “Predicting fine-scale distributions and emergent spatiotemporal patterns from temporally dynamic step selection simulations” published in Ecography. Scott is also at QUT, supervised by Chris Drovandi. We offered an Honorary Mention to Alan Pearse, for his paper “Optimal prediction of positive-valued spatial processes: Asymmetric power-divergence loss” published in Spatial Statistics. Alan was supervised by Noel Cressie at the University of Wollongong.

We look forward to seeing Dilishiya and co in action at ASC!

The Prestigious Pitman Medal – Recognising Excellence in Statistics

The Society awards a gold medal, the Pitman Medal, at most once annually, in recognition of outstanding achievement in, and contribution to, the discipline of Statistics.

This is the Society’s premier award and recognises the recipient’s innovations in statistics, and the impact that these have had. The recipient’s work will have enhanced the international standing of Australia in the discipline of Statistics.

Initial nomination is by means of a 1-2 page description of the nominee’s achievements and their impacts, preferably in a form that can be used in a citation for the recipient.

Nominations close on 31 May.

Honorary Life Membership

Honorary Life Membership honours outstanding contribution to the profession, including through contribution to the SSA at Branch and National level – although innovation and impact in statistics are also considered.

Initial nomination is by means of a 1-2 page description of the nominee’s achievements and their impacts, preferably in a form that can be used in a citation for the recipient.

Nominations close on 31 May.

Society Service Award

A Society Service Award may be awarded to a Society member in recognition of sustained (at least 3 years) and significant service to the Statistical Society of Australia at Branch and/or National level.

Nomination is by means of a 1 page description of the nominee’s service to the Society and the impact of that effort on the success of the SSA.

The Statistical Society of Australia will award up to four top-up scholarships to PhD or Masters students in Australia who are current members of the Society.

Scholarships will be offered as a one year $2,500 award (part-time students can spread their award over two years). Awards will be per calendar year.

Applications close at 5pm AEST, 31 May 2025.

Interested in attending an ATSIMA 2025 Biennial Conference? The SSA is sponsoring the attendance of one member per conference. The Society will cover the delegate's registration fee, travel and accommodation expenses of up to $1,500.

Applications close at 5pm AEST, 6 June 2025.

Apply Now

Showcase Your Work in Our New Member Contributions Section

We’re excited to announce a new opportunity for our members to share their expertise, insights, and achievements with the wider Statistical Society of Australia community. The Member Contributions section in our e-newsletter is your platform to:

• Build a Stronger Community: Share your ideas and foster meaningful connections within the SSA network.
• Showcase Your Work: Highlight your research, articles, or professional achievements to inspire and inform fellow members.
• Amplify Your Impact: Gain recognition and visibility for your work among statisticians, data analysts, and industry leaders.

All submissions will be reviewed for potential inclusion in an upcoming edition of the newsletter. Whether you have groundbreaking research, a thought-provoking article, or news about recent accomplishments, we want to hear from you!

The Statistical Society of Australia's branches have come together to launch the National Branch Lecture Series, bringing you insightful talks from experts across the country. Each month, a different branch will host a webinar, showcasing diverse topics in statistics and data science. We’re excited to invite you to this month’s session, hosted by the Vic & Tas Branch.

Sarah Hunt will talk about how she uses experimental design to test new software features and give an example of a deep dive analysis.

National Speaker Series Hosted by Vic & Tas Branch

Date: 28 May 2025

Time: 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM AEST

Location: Online

SSA ACT Branch May Event: Hidden Statistical Thinking—Weaving Stories of Strength on Integrating Indigenous Perspectives Across the Curriculum

Date: 27 May 2025

Time: 5:45 PM

Location: CBE Lecture Theatre 1, ANU College of Business & Economics, Building 26C, The Australian National University (ANU Building 26C), or via Zoom.

Text Analysis with Large Language Models

Date: 3 Jun 2025 - 4 Jun 2025

Time: 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM each day

Location: Online

Streamline Your Workflow: Effectively Managing Projects, Time, and Emails

Date: 5 Jun 2025

Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Location: Online

Personal Journey of Eric Sowey: A Webinar by Early Career & Student Statisticians Network and History Standing Committee of SSA, in collaboration with the NSW Branch 

Date: 5 Jun 2025 

Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM 

Location: Online

Tips for Interview Success

Date: 19 Jun 2025

Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Location: Online

Item Nonresponse and Imputation

Date: 24 Jun 2025

Time: Weekly 1 hour meetings taking place Tuesdays

Location: Online

The first ICOTS to be held in Australia is in the heart of Brisbane 12th -17th July, 2026.

Propose a paper to feature in one of ICOTS 12 Main Topics.

Important Dates

Due date for Main Topic paper proposals: 31 May 2025

Outcome by: 30 August 2025

Due date for contributed and other paper proposals desiring refereeing: 31 July 2025

Acceptance by: 30 August 2025

An optional refereeing process is available for all papers accepted as above.

Papers will appear in the international ICOTS Proceedings. Due date for Papers requesting refereeing: 31 October 2025

Referee reports by: 31 December 2025

See Home • ICOTS 12 for Main Topics (under Scientific Programme) and for Submissions.

Do you want to contribute to research to reduce inequality in Higher Education in STEM disciplines?

You are invited to participate in a research study on “Identifying Successful Strategies for Recruitment, Retention, and Equality in Higher Education in STEM disciplines for disadvantaged students”. The purpose of this research is to examine the challenges and opportunities related to increasing the recruitment, retention, and success of underrepresented and disadvantaged students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines in higher education.

The Random Sample Kicks Off Season 10

We’re excited to share that Season 10 of The Random Sample podcast launches this week — and the SSA is proud to be one of the partner organisations supporting this impactful series.

The first episode of the new season, “From Silo to Solution: Unlocking Climate & Social Data That Can Drive Change,” explores AusEnHealth — a groundbreaking initiative designed to connect fragmented datasets to better understand where Australians are most at risk from extreme heat, weather events, emissions, and social inequality.

STEM Women’s Development Scholarships

We’re offering partial scholarships for women in the STEM Industry ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 per person, for one of four leadership and workplace skill development programs.

These scholarships are aimed at encouraging more women to increase their impact at work, progress their career, and step into leadership roles.

Application Deadline: Friday 6th June 2025.

AMSI invites experienced lecturers to teach an honours/masters level statistics or probability course at the 2026 AMSI Summer School, held at Monash University from January 12 to February 6.

This unique opportunity allows you to engage with a diverse, national cohort of highly motivated honours and post-graduate students in an intensive learning environment.

To apply, please complete the attached proposal and submit to Anna Muscara and Ngang Le at coordinator_rhed@amsi.org.au by Friday 16 May.

Apply Now

Stay Connected – Follow SSA’s Official LinkedIn Page!

We’re excited to invite you to follow the official Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/statsocaus/

By following us, you’ll gain access to:

• Regular updates on SSA events and conferences
• The latest industry news and trends
• Exclusive career opportunities and professional development resources
• Member highlights and community insights

Stay informed, connect with fellow statisticians and data professionals, and be part of the growing SSA network. Follow us today!

The SSA Career Centre is your go-to platform for connecting statisticians and data scientists with prospective employers.

For Employers:
Advertise job openings to a highly targeted audience of statisticians and data professionals. Once registered, employers can:

• Post and manage job advertisements.
• Search for and manage prospective candidates.
• Create a detailed company profile to enhance visibility.

Advertising fees start at just $130, providing an affordable way to reach top talent.

For Job Seekers:
Boost your career with tools designed to help you stand out:

• Post your résumé anonymously for potential employers to view.
• Set up personalised job alerts to be notified when roles matching your criteria are advertised.
• Take advantage of our free résumé review service to refine your profile before uploading it.

Whether you’re hiring or seeking, the SSA Career Centre makes connecting easy and efficient. Register today to get started!

Whether you’re looking to sponsor an event, support a conference, or explore a long-term partnership, we’re excited to work with you. Collaborate with the Statistical Society of Australia to connect with our vibrant community of statisticians and data professionals.

Reach out to Jodi Phillips at events@statsoc.org.au to start the conversation and explore possibilities.