warming stripes [but 1d]

Just recently, I came across this representation of the (global) temperature rise over the period 1850-2020, made by Professor Ed Hawkins from the University of Reading. It is powerful, artsy, reminding me of the Everything mural in the Zeeman Building at the University of Warwick, and visually most appealing, as a poster about the urgency for action, but it nonetheless remain a poor statistical graph in that it is a 2d presentation of a 1d dataset, the time series of the yearly average temperatures, missing the opportunity to exploit the second axis by eg taking a stripe of the Earth from South Pole to North Pole or the daily temperature throughout the year. And it is also lacking a scale, not only by omitting the dates on the first axis, but also by choosing an arbitrary if dramatic colour range [unable to incorporate the so-far ultimate 2023?!] (And with the visual appeal comes the danger of turning it into yet another marketing gimmick, hence cancelling its message.)

Warwickshire honey fungus [by Birmingham]

step-dads with Bayesian design [One World ABC’minar, 21 March]

The next One World ABC seminar is taking place (on-line, requiring pre-registration) on Thursday 21 March, 9:00am UK time, with Desi Ivanova (University of Oxford), speaking about Step-DAD: Semi-Amortized Policy-Based Bayesian Experimental Design:

We develop a semi-amortized, policy-based, approach to Bayesian experimental design (BED) called Step-wise Deep Adaptive Design (Step-DAD). Like existing, fully amortized, policy-based BED approaches, Step-DAD trains a design policy upfront before the experiment. However, rather than keeping this policy fixed, Step-DAD periodically updates it as data is gathered, refining it to the particular experimental instance. This allows it to improve both the adaptability and the robustness of the design strategy compared with existing approaches.

(Which reminded me of George’s book on design in 2008.)

postdoctoral research positions at PariSanté

Thanks to the 2023-2029 ERC Synergy grant OCEAN (On intelligenCE And Networks: Synergistic research in Bayesian Statistics, Microeconomics and Computer Sciences), I am seeking one or two postdoctoral researchers with an interest in Bayesian federated learning, distributed MCMC, approximate Bayesian inference and computing, and data privacy.

The project is based at Université Paris Dauphine, on the new PariSanté Campus.  The postdocs will join the OCEAN teams of researchers directed by Éric Moulines and myself (Christian P Robert) to work on the above themes with multiple possibilities of focus from statistical theory, to Bayesian methodology, to decision theory, to algorithms, to medical applications. Collaborations with the OCEAN teams of researchers directed by Michael Jordan (Berkeley) and Gareth Roberts (Warwick) will further be encouraged and related travel will be supported.

Qualifications

The candidates should hold a doctorate in applied maths, statistics or machine learning, with demonstrated skills in Bayesian analysis, game theory, Monte Carlo methodology or numerical probability, an excellent record of publications in these domains, and an interest in working as part of an interdisciplinary international team. Scientific maturity and research autonomy are a must for applying. There is no deadline for the positions, which will be filled when a suitable candidate is selected.

Funding

Besides a 2 year postdoctoral contract at Université Paris Dauphine (with possible extension for another year), at a salary of 31K€ per year, the project will fund travel to OCEAN partners’ institutions (University of Warwick or University of Berkeley) and participation to yearly summer schools and conferences. Standard French university benefits are attached to the position and no teaching duty is involved, as per ERC rules.

The starting date of the postdoctoral positions is negotiable depending on the applicants’ availability.

Application Procedure

• To apply, please send the following entries in one pdf file to Christian Robert (bayesianstatistics@gmail.com).
• a letter of application,
• a CV,

Letters of recommendation are to be sent directly by their author.

Bayesian score calibration at One World ABC’minar [only comes every 1462 days]