News

The Following introduction of The Finnish Statistical Society was published in American Statistical Society Newsletter AmstatNews in summer 2005:

Photo: The Council of Finnish Statistical Society. in 2005 (from left to right) - Ms. Leila Lankinen, professor Lauri Tarkkonen, Society secretary Ms. Jaana Huhta, Society president Dr. Jukka Hoffrén, Mr. Samu hakala, Ms. Tuula Lehikoinen, Society treasurer Ms. Leena Kalliovirta, Ms. Maria Valaste, Society vice-president Mr. Pasi Piela and Mr. Vesa Ylönen.

The Finnish Statistical Society

Text: Jukka Hoffrén, Photographer: Jussi Korpi

The Finnish Statistical Society, founded in 1920, is the oldest learned, non-profit-making society in Finland. The purpose of the society is to promote the development of statistical theory and its applications, and to function as a link between statisticians and others working in different fields of statistics and research. The Finnish Statistical Society has over 400 members. They represent statisticians working in statistics departments of Finnish universities as well as in statistical offices and research institutes.

The activities of the Finnish Statistical Society are led by the President and the Council, elected yearly. Since 2003 the President of the society has been Dr Jukka Hoffrén and Secretary Ms Jaana Huhta. All activities are carried out by members' voluntary work. The society organises the Annual Conference of Statisticians every year. In 2005 the conference was held in Oulu in May. The society also organises 2 to 3 so-called afternoon seminars yearly on current topics in statistics. The languages used by the society in domestic activities are Finnish and Swedish. In international activities the society relies on English.

The Finnish Statistical Society is a member of the International Statistical Institute and a member of the Federation of Finnish Scientific (Learned) Societies. The 53rd Session of the ISI conference was organised in August 1999 by the Finnish Statistical Society and Statistics Finland in Helsinki, Finland.

The co-operation with the other Nordic Statistical Societies has been very active. For example, the Finnish Statistical Society organises, in rotation, the Nordic Conference in Mathematical Statistics as well as the Nordic Meeting of Statisticians jointly with the other Nordic associations. The Nordic Conference in Mathematical Statistics was held in Jyväskylä in Finland in June 2004. The Nordic Meeting of Statisticians is held every three years in some Nordic country by a certain rotation principle. The latest Nordic Meeting of Statisticians took place in Turku, Finland in August 2004.

The communication with members is carried out by a newsletter, which comes out 3 to 4 times per year. In recent years the society has increased the use of web and e-mail in the communication with its members. Nowadays almost half of the members receive their newsletters by e-mail.

The Finnish Statistical Society publishes annually the Yearbook of the Finnish Statistical Society, including papers presented at the Annual Meeting of Statisticians and other seminars. It also issues doctoral theses in the Statistical Research Reports series. So far 17 dissertations have been published. Furthermore, the Finnish Statistical Society publishes quarterly the Scandinavian Journal of Statistics jointly with the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish statistical associations and Blackwell Publishers. The Scandinavian Journal of Statistics is an international statistical journal that welcomes contributions from all countries. The language of the Journal is English.

The homepage of the Finnish Statistical Society:

http://www.tilastoseura.fi/index_en.html

Päivitetty 07.12.2009