O’Bayes 09

The next Objective Bayes meeting, O-Bayes09, is taking place in Philadelphia, in the superb modern building of the Wharton Business School, from June 5th till June 9th, 2009, and is organised by Larry Brown, Ed George, Linda Zhao and Kai Zhang. It follows earlier meetings on objective Bayes methodology held in Purdue, USA, 1996, València, Spain, 1998, Ixtapa, Mexico, 2000, Granada, Spain, 2002, Aussois, France, 2003—the one that I organised and where the O’Bayes nn brand was officially launched!—, Branson, MO, USA, 2005, and Rome, Italy, 2007. To borrow from the main page of the conference website, “the principal objectives of O-Bayes09 will be to facilitate the exchange of recent research developments in objective Bayes methodology, to provide opportunities for new researchers to shine, and to establish new collaborations and partnerships that will channel efforts into pending problems and open new directions for further study. O-Bayes09 will also serve to further crystallize objective Bayes methodology as an established area for statistical research.” This has always been an exciting meeting with a small enough attendance to facilitate debates and exchanges in a most congenial and traditional Bayesian way!

The conference starts on the 5th of June with a series of tutorials on Bayesian Statistics in the morning and with lectures on Jeffreys’ book Theory of Probability on the afternoon. I am organising this afternoon session following a reading class I gave this year in Paris. I will also give an introductory talk along this reading paper we wrote this Spring with Nicolas Chopin and Judith Rousseau. Anyone interested in contributing to this session should feel free contact me, since there is room for posters and discussants. I originally wanted to organise this meeting in St John’s College, Cambridge, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the publication of Theory of Probability, but it is more than fitting to have a session on Jeffreys and his lasting influence at an Objective Bayes conference.