A Celebration of Statistics

Book excerpt: The International Statistical Institute was founded in 1885 and is therefore one of the world's oldest international scientific societies. The field of statistics is still expanding rapidly and possesses a rich variety of applications in many areas of human activity such as science, government, business, industry, and everyday affairs. In consequence, the celebration of the Institute's centenary in 1985 is of considerable interest not only to statisticians but also more widely to the international scientific community. As part of its centennial celebration planning the Institute decided to publish a volume of papers representing the immensely wide range of interests encompassed by statistics in its international context, viewed both from a historical and from a contemporary standpoint. We were fortunate in securing the services of Anthony Atkinson and Stephen Fienberg as Editors of this volume: they have worked hard over a period of several years to put together a most fascinating collection of papers. On behalf of the Institute it is my pleasant duty to thank them and the authors for their contributions. J. DURBIN, President International Statistical Institute Preface The papers in this volume were prepared to help celebrate the centenary of the International Statistical Institute. During the lSI's first 100 years statistics has matured, both as a scientific discipline and as a profession, in ways that the lSI's founders could not possibly have imagined.