Bayesians in CHILE
(by
Fernando Quintana)
|
The
development of Bayesian statistics in Chile started only a few years ago.
We all agree that Pilar Iglesias has been
the
spiritual leader of the group. After working with Carlos Pereira, she received
the Doctoral degree from the U. of São
Paulo
(USP), Brazil. She later became a faculty member in the Department of Statistics
of the P. U. Católica de Chile
(PUC)
in 1994.
From
the very day of her arrival at PUC, Pilar started making contact with faculty
members at other universities.
Consequently,
the U. of La Serena, Chile hosted the First Bayesian Workshop, in January
of 1996. It was a short
event,
with a very reduced number of participants, but being the first entirely
Bayesian meeting in Chile, it had a
special
relevance. The workshop came as the result of a joint effort of Pilar,
Victor Salinas from the U. de Santiago de
Chile
(USACH), another former student of C. Pereira in USP, and some local faculty
members. Certainly, the whole
project
was strongly motivated by the Brazilian tradition.
Later,
in May of 1996, the U. of Valparaíso (UV) hosted the First Workshop
on Models with Errors in Variables and
Bayesian
Inference. Again, Pilar was at the heart of the organization, sharing responsibilities
with Manuel Galea
of
the UV, and Reinaldo Arellano (PUC), both former students of Heleno Bolfarine
in USP. This was also the first time that
the
Journal of the Chilean Statistical Society (SOCHE) edited a special issue,
completely devoted to the articles
presented
in this meeting.
The
Second Workshop was hosted by the U. of Antofagasta (UA) in January of
1997. The local organizers were Héctor
Varela,
Guillermo Mondaca (former students of Vicente Quesada at U. Complutense
de Madrid), and Juan Duarte
(former
student of Domingo Morales, also at U. Complutense de Madrid), all of them
faculty members of the UA.
The
Third Workshop was held at the U. Austral de Chile in Valdívia (UAV)
in January of 1998, where it was decided that
the
future versions would take place biannually. The local host was Eliana
Scheihing from UAV (former student of
Michel
Mouchart in the U. of Louvain). A future issue of the SOCHE journal will
concentrate on articles presented in
Valdívia,
this time including discussion. The Third Workshop had the largest international
attendance so far, including
Manuel
Mendoza from ITAM in Mexico, Michel Mouchart and Heleno Bolfarine.
The
Chilean chapter of ISBA was established in 1997. We currently have about
25 members from nearly all the
universities
in Chile, including some local graduate students and some current and former
doctoral students in USP. The
reader is kindly invited to guess who has been the chair of our organization right from its birth.
The
main topics of research conducted by Chilean Bayesians are: de Finetti-type
Theorems (Pilar Iglesias); Bayesian
modeling
with errors in variables and with elliptical errors (Reinaldo Arellano,
Pilar Iglesias, PUC;
Manuel
Galea, UV); nonparametric Bayesian methods (Héctor Varela, Juan
Duarte, Guillermo Mondaca, UA; Eliana
Scheihing,
UAV; Victor Salinas, USACH; Fernando Quintana, PUC); Bayesian modeling
(Arturo Mora, María Elena
Valenzuela,
U. de Concepcion; Ernesto San Martín, currently in U. Louvain).
We also have to mention Alicia Carriquiry,
from
Iowa State U., Heleno Bolfarine, and Guido del Pino (PUC) who have repeatedly
given us their support and
encouragement
in our research activities.
Bayesian
statistics in Chile is at its early stages, but starting to grow and develop.
Indeed, Pilar and Reinaldo have
advised
a number of Master theses at PUC, and some Ph. D. theses at USP. We expect
to keep climbing the
ladder
in the coming years.