International Biometric Society Meeting
A meeting of the Australasian region of the International Biometric Society took place on the 3rd – 6th December, 2019 at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide. The conference was nicknamed ‘Biometric by the Botanic Gardens’ and presented a great atmosphere for almost 120 participants from Australia, NZ, Canada, the USA, Germany, China, UK and the Netherlands.
Seven statistical workshops were delivered prior to the conference at the North Terrace and Waite campuses, attended by 110 statisticians and researchers. The conference was chaired by Prof Alan Welsh (ANU), with Drs Petra Kuhnert (CSIRO) and Olena Kravchuk (UofA) chairing the scientific and local organising committees, respectively.
The conference was generously supported with sponsorship by GRDC, CSIRO, Waite Research Institute & the School of Agriculture, Food & Wine (UofA), AGT, SAHMRI, ACEMS and RSFASS (ANU). The Biometry Hub did a great job as the local organising committee.
Discussions and presentations at the conference resonated with the research in health & medical sciences, agriculture, ecology and environment, providing biometric solutions to the current hot research questions. Selected presentations and workshop outlines and materials are available on the conference website.
As part of the social program, the Special and Rare Collection of the Barr Smith Library organised a Fisher exhibition of the letters and works of Sir Ronald Fisher rarely seen by public. The display is open till the end of January in the Library and is worth attending. The curator of the display is Mrs Cheryl Hoskin.
Our colleague, Mr Sam Rogers, won the first prize for the best poster (non-student) for the work he conducted together with Dr Julian Taylor on comparing software packages for the analysis of plant breeding experiments.
The conference has made a positive impact on the statistical communities in Adelaide and Australasia. The research and engagement profile of the Biometry Hub and the biometry research activities in the University of Adelaide were appreciated by the conference participants.