Dr Xiaoli Meng, Harvard University, was the 2007 AMSI Lecturer.

Dr Meng is Professor of Statistics and Chair of the Department of Statistics at Harvard University, Massachusetts. In 2001 he received the prestigious Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) award. His research interests are statistical inference under complex settings.

His research interests are in statistical inference under complex settings. These settings include partially observed data, pre-processed data and simulated data. Research activities include quantifying statistical information and efficiency in scientific studies involving scientific computation, genetics and environmental problems. He has developed effective deterministic and stochastic algorithms for Bayesian and likelihood computation and he has explored general statistical principles and foundations.

AMSI sponsored his visit to New Zealand and Australia in July 2006. He was the closing plenary speaker at the annual joint conference of the Statistical Society of Australia and the New Zealand Statistical Association, held at SKYCITY Auckland Convention Centre. His topic, Size does matter, but you might be in for a surprise … was repeated in Sydney and Canberra. In Sydney and Canberra he gave a second presentation, Life becomes more colorful when you know EM, Bayes and Wavelets.

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