Dear {Contact_First_Name},
As I am writing this introduction the newsletter, we are halfway through NAIDOC Week. National NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia in the first week of July each year, to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This year’s NAIDOC theme is Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!
From the official NAIDOC site:
“Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! with us to amplify our voices and narrow the gap between aspiration and reality, good intent and outcome. It’s also time to celebrate the many who have driven and led change in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities over generations—they have been the heroes and champions of change, of equal rights and even basic human rights.”
As it does every year, our publishing partner Wiley celebrates NAIDOC Week by highlighting a selection of research from the wealth of work published across its journals both by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers, and on a broad range of topics relating to Indigenous Australia. Wiley interviewed researchers on their exciting and impactful work and provided a collection of over 60 free-to-access papers spanning a range of topics centred around this year’s theme. You can access these here.
NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth. Click here to find a NAIDOC event near you.
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Election of Executive Members
Members are advised that the Executive positions of Secretary and Treasurer will become vacant at the Society’s Central Council Annual General Meeting in 2022.
Members of SSA are invited to submit nominations for the two positions to be vacated. Nominations must be in writing and signed by the nominator(s), and must be accompanied by a written and signed statement from the nominee accepting the nomination. Nominations should be submitted to the SSA President or to a Branch President before 21st July, 2022.
Doug Shaw, Secretary |
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Abel Prize - Open for Nominations The Abel Prize recognises pioneering scientific achievements in mathematics
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters hereby calls for nominations of candidates for the Abel Prize 2023.
The Abel Prize was established in 2002, and awarded for the first time in 2003. It recognises outstanding scientific work in the field of mathematics, including mathematical aspects of computer science, mathematical physics, probability, numerical analysis and scientific computing, statistics and applications of mathematics in the sciences.
The Abel Prize amounts to NOK 7,5 million.
Nomination deadline: 15 September 2022. |
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SSA/AMSI Data Science Review
In the last few years, student and employer interest in the discipline of Data Science has grown significantly, which is reflected by establishment of new degrees and majors at Australian universities and increased employer demand for these graduates. The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) and the Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) are conducting a Review of the role of Data Science in Australian universities. |
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How popular is your birthday? Searching for something interesting to include in today’s newsletter, I stumbled across this webpage by the Irish Central Statistics Office: Popular Birthdays. The webpage states: “How popular is your birthday? Discover how your birthday ranks in popularity and learn the average number of babies born that day. See the most and least popular birthdays of the year.”
The concept of a "popular" birthdate sounds strange to my ears, since we cannot choose the day we are born. Even our parents were limited in their influence over our date of birth.
Never mind. My interest was piqued and I wanted to know how “popular” my own birthdate is. It turns out, having been born in November, it’s not popular at all! At least not in Ireland. Now, if I had been born in July…. By the way, there is nothing wrong with being born in November. According to my star sign, scorpio, I'm not too bad a person, and my horoscope is generally optimistic in its outlook. Since I was born before 1980 (and I am not Irish) this table does not include me anyway, but I still find it interesting, and I would love to compare it to something produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Would the results be the direct opposite of those in the Northern hemisphere? Would the most popular month be January? And the least popular August? |
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Join the ASC2023 Committee! Did you enjoy last year’s Australian and New Zealand Statistical Conference? Why not get involved with our next ASC, held in Wollongong in December 2023? The team for ASC2023 are looking for two more committee members to help assist with planning our first face-to-face conference in four years!
The two volunteer positions to be filled are that of Marketing Officer and that of Sponsorship Officer. If you love graphics and a bit of social media, the Marketing Officer position may be calling your name. As for the role of Sponsorship Officer, we already have a list with sponsorship leads for you, so you will not be starting from scratch.
With both positions you can count on the capable support of SSA’s Event Coordinator, of course.
Interested? Please email the SSA Office by 11 July 2022.
If you have played with idea of volunteering, but you are worried about getting roped in for the next five years, these two positions are perfect for you, as they will not go on beyond 2023. |
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Canberra branch “2022 rego grants” for all members
SSA Canberra is inviting all its members to apply for financial support in the form of a “rego grant” to attend statistical conferences, workshops, visits to collaborators, and other related events in 2022. Successful applicants of the rego grant will be eligible for up to $400 AUD of total funding, with the funding coming in the form of reimbursements.
Please click here to find out more. To apply and/or if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact ssacanberra@gmail.com . |
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Attention Vic members! Workshop/conference funding support available!
SSA Vic are proud to announce that we will once again be offering financial support to our members for the attendance of statistical workshops, conferences, and short courses; both national and international, in 2022.
Each member is eligible for up to $200 of total funding to cover the registration and travel expenses associated with the aforementioned activities. |
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Science and Technology Australia (STA): Calling SSA members to join the Policy Committee or Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee
Are you someone who is passionate about policy? Or excited, driven, and intrigued by equity, diversity and inclusion? If so, then you may be interested in applying to join STA's Policy or Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committees. Find out more here, and let our president, Jess Kasza know if you're keen on applying to join one of these committees. This is a great opportunity for you to help STA achieve its mission, bringing STEM expertise to public policymaking, and championing STEM sector diversity and inclusion. |
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MACHINE LEARNING WITH PYTHON- 23 Jul 2022 (AEST) – 24 Jul 2022, held online
The Statistical Society of Australia Victoria branch warmly invites you to a workshop on machine learning with Python, presented by Patrick Robotham from Magic.
This two day workshop aims to enable data scientists to incrementally incorporate Python in their workflow. After an introduction of Python basics, the workshop focuses on developing Python models in a workflow framework that is most commonly seen in a production environment. Participants will benefit from a gentle introduction to Python on the first day before learning some powerful modelling concepts and tools on the second day. |
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Save the date: ASC and OZCOTS 2023
10-15 December 2023, University of Wollongong, NSW |
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31st Population Census Conference
The 31st Population Census Conference will be held in Tokyo, Japan, from 29 November to 1 December 2022. The 31st conference will be co-hosted and organised by the Association of National Census and Statistics Directors of America, Asia and the Pacific (ANCSDAAP) and the Statistics Bureau of Japan (SBJ) under the theme “Impact of COVID-19 on the 2020 Round of Censuses and How to Overcome the Ensuing Challenges".
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Current positions advertised in SSA's Career Centre |
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Would you like to see your job advertised here? Our newsletter has an opening rate of 60%, which means that over 500 statisticians or student statisticians will see your ad. Place an ad in SSA's Career Centre, and it will be automatically listed in this newsletter. |
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If you have news from the Australian statistical community to share in Stats Matters and Events, please get in touch with us! We love getting feedback too. |
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