A Brief History of the IMSC

Material concerning past IMSCs is scattered in various places including the meeting proceedings. Murphy and Zwiers (1993) briefly described the first few meetings, with some detailed discussion of 5IMSC. Hans von Storch gave an interesting speech about the IMSCs during the 9IMSC Awards Ceremony. In the following, we review the evolution of the meetings, using material from the meeting proceedings and excerpts from Murphy and Zwiers (1993).

The First International Conference on Statistical Climatology was held at the Inter-University Seminar House in Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan, from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, 1979, as a satellite meeting to the 1979 session of the International Statistical Institute (ISI). R. Sneyers and M. M. Yoshino chaired the organizing committee for this conference; the committee also included M. Hirose, E. Uchida, E. Suzuki, Y. Suzuki, and S. Ikeda, with advice from F.C. Leone and S.S. Gupta. The conference was sponsored by the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability, the Japan Statistical Society and the Meteorological Society of Japan, and financially supported by the US Office of Naval Research and the Institute of Information Sciences, Soka University. About thirty papers were presented to the fifty participants. Reprints were published in the book Statistical Climatology: Developments in Atmospheric Sciences, 13, by Elsevier in 1980.

The Second International Meeting on Statistical Climatology was held in Sintra, near Lisbon, Portugal from 26-30 September 1983. The meeting was hosted by the Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia e Geofisica (INMG) of Portugal. The scientific program was arranged by an international organizing committee consisting of A.H. Murphy (chair), R. Czelnai, O.M. Essenwanger, L.A. Medes Victor, E.L. Scott, R. Sneyers, E. Suzuki and E. Wegman. The primary sponsors of the meeting included the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the US National Science Foundation, and the US Office of Naval Research who provided funds to support the participation of lead speakers. Co-sponsors for the meeting included the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the American Statistical Association (ASA), the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability, the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, the Meteorological Society of Japan, and the National Institute of Scientific Research (Portugal). More than 100 papers were presented. The participants came from than 30 countries in the six continents.

The Third International Meeting on Statistical Climatology was held in Vienna, Austria from 23-27 June 1986. The meeting was chaired by Konrad Cehak, and was hosted by the Austrian Society of Meteorology. It was sponsored by the Austrian Society of Meteorology, the AMS, the WMO, and the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research. The meeting attracted nearly one hundred participants from all over the world, with 76 papers presented.

"In 1987 questions arose as to the location and timing of the 4th meeting. To ensure the continuation of the IMSC series and to provide a mechanism for choosing appropriate sites and program chairs for future meetings, an ad hoc group of interested individuals met in Edmonton, Canada, on the occasion of the 10th AMS Conference on Probability and Statistics in Atmospheric Sciences. This informal meeting (organized by John Revfeim ) led to the creation of a free-standing steering committee (SC) to oversee the IMSC series, and Allan Murphy was asked to serve as the first chair of the SC/IMSC." (Murphy and Zwiers 1993)

The Fourth International Meeting on Statistical Climatology was held in Rotorua, New Zealand from 27-31 March, 1989. The meeting was sponsored by the WMO, the Canadian Airlines International and the New Zealand Meteorological Service. The External Aid Division of the New Zealand Ministry of External Relations and Trade and three private sponsors in New Zealand also provided some travel funds. The Steering Committee included A.H.Murphy, N. Nicholls, R. Sneyers, F. Zwiers, G.V. Gruza, and I. Rodriguez-Iturbe. The planning and running of the meeting were carried out by K.J.A. Revfeim (Convenor, Organizing Committee), S.W. Goulter (Convenor, Programme Committee), C.S. Thompson, and J. Sansom with some assistance from other staff of the New Zealand Meteorological Service.

In the spring of 1992 the SC/IMSC decided to initiate a series of outstanding achievement Awards for fundamental and original research involving the application of statistical methods in atmospheric sciences. The Steering Committee also voted to give three outstanding achievement awards at the 5th IMSC in Toronto. The recipients of these awards were Glenn W. Brier, Edward S. Epstein, and Lev S. Gandin.

The Fifth International Meeting on Statistical Climatology was held in Toronto, Canada from 22-26 June, 1992, concurrently with the 12th AMS Conference on Probability and Statistics in Atmospheric Sciences. Financial support was provided by the Atmospheric Environment Service of Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the WMO, and the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society with additional sponsorship from the AMS, the ASA, the Bernoulli Society, the Statistical Society of Canada and Sun Microsystems of Canada. The Steering Committee included Allan Murphy (Chair), George Gruza, Neville Nicholls, Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe, Shyamvir Singh, Raymond Sneyers and Francis Zwiers. The program committee was chaired by Francis Zwiers, with the following members: Peter Bloomfield, David Brillinger, Nicholas Fisher, Robert Livezey, Roland Madden, Paul Mielke, Allan Murphy, Nancy Reid, Benjamin Santer, Raymond Sneyers, Andrew Solow and Hans von Storch.

"This meeting [5IMSC] marks the fruition of an idea that was born in the first meeting that statistics is an essential part of climatology and that a full understanding of our climate and its mechanisms depends very much on the development of sophisticated and powerful statistical methodology. It attracted almost 240 participants from 33 countries" (Murphy and Zwiers 1993).

The Sixth International Meeting on Statistical Climatology was held in Galway, Ireland, from June 19-23, 1995. It was hosted by the University College, Galway with financial support received from All-Ireland Statistics Committee, the European Union, the Irish Meteorological Service, the AMS, University College Galway and the WMO. The Steering Committee was chaired by Francis Zwiers, with members including George Gruza, Allan Murphy, Neville Nicholls, Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe, Shyamvir Singh, and Raymond Sneyers. Iognaid O Muircheartaigh organized the scientific program with help from the Program Committee members including Peter Guttorp, John Haslett, Tom Karl, Peter Lamb, Robert Livezey, Roland Madden, Allan Murphy, John Petkau, Jonathan Tawn, Jean Thiebaux, Hans von Storch, Grace Wahba, Dan Wilks, and Francis Zwiers. About 200 scientists from over 30 countries participated in this meeting. Allan Murphy was presented with the IMSC Achievements Award.

The Seventh International Meeting on Statistical Climatology was held in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, from May 25-29, 1998. This meeting was dedicated to the memory of Allan Murphy, who died in 1997. He helped to initiate the series of meetings on statistical climatology, and was a central figure in all previous IMSCs. The meeting was sponsored by several organizations including the AMS, the Canadian Centre for Climate Analysis and Modelling, the Canadian Institute for Climate Studies, GKSS Research Centre (Institute of Coastal Research/Hydrophysics, Lüneburg, Germany), IBM Canada, the Institute for Mathematical Statistics, the National Research Center for Statistics and the Environment, the National Science Foundation (USA) and Simon Fraser University (Canada). The meeting was overseen by the SC/IMSC consisting of Francis Zwiers (chair), Hans von Storch, Raymond Sneyers, John Refveim, Shyam Vir Singh and Iggy O'Muircheartaigh. The Scientific Program Committee included Peter Guttorp (chair), Barbara Brown, Ian Jolliffe, Rol Madden, Doug Nychka, Iggy O'Muircheataigh, Ben Santer, Dennis Shea, Richard Smith, Hans von Storch, Jean Thiebaux, Grace Wahba and Eduardo Zorita. The local organizer was Richard Lockhart.

The Eighth International Meeting on Statistical Climatology was held in the University of Lüneburg, Germany, from March 12-16, 2001. It was organized by the Institute of Coastal Research/Hydrophysics, GKSS Research Centre . The program committee included Hans von Storch (chair), Götz Flöser (local organization), Hans Alexandersson, Joao Corte-Real, Peter Guttorp, Gabi Hegerl, Ian Jolliffe, Rol Madden, Peter Müller, Carlos Nobre, Doug Nychka, Jin-Song von Storch, Dietrich Stoyan, Hans Wackernagel, Lawrence Wilson and Francis Zwiers. In addition to an abstracts book, selected papers were published in a special issue of the Climatic Research.

The Ninth International Meeting on Statistical Climatology was held in Cape Town, South Africa, from May 24-28, 2004. It ran in partnership with the South African Society for Atmospheric Science. It was organized by the Climate System Analysis Group of the University of Cape Town. Bruce Hewitson organized the scientific program with help from Myles Allen, Bryson Bates, Ian Jolliffe, Hans von Storch, Xiaolan Wang, Francis Zwiers, and Xuebin Zhang. The abstracts book , along with most of powerpoint presentations are available.

The Tenth International Meeting on Statistical Climatology was held in Beijing, China, from August 20-24, 2007. It was organized by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences . Xuebin Zhang and Huijun Wang organized the scientific program with help from Caspar Ammann, Bryson Bates, Richard Chandler, Gabi Hegerl, Bruce Hewitson, Ian Jolliffe, Rick Katz, Slava Kharin, Ben Kirtman, Seung-Ki Min, Doug Nychka, Daithi Stone, Hans von Storch, Zhongwei Yan, Hans Wackernagel, Xiaolan Wang, Qingyun Zhang, Jiang Zhu, and Francis Zwiers. The abstracts book is available. Most of presentations are available on-line from the abstracts book.

The 11th International Meeting on Statistical Climatology was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, from July 12-16, 2010. It was organized by University of Edinburgh. Gabi Hegerl was the chair of the program. The meeting also received the support from the National Centre for Atmospheric Sceinces, the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences and the Centre for Earth System Dynamics, part of the Scottish Alliance for Geosciences, Environment and Society, SAGES. The abstracts book is available. Most of presentations are available on-line from the abstracts book. Most of presentations are available on-line from the abstracts book.

The Twelfth International Meeting on Statistical Climatology was held in Jeju Island, South Korea from 24-28 June, 2013. The meeting was hosted by the National Institute of Meteorological Research (NIMR) and IMSC Steering Committee. The 12th IMSC was sponsored by the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), the Korean Meteorological Society (KOMES), the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC), and the Institute for Mathematics Applied to Geosciences (IMAGe)/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The Program Committee included Bryson Bates, Richard E. Chandler, Gabi Hegerl, Dongsoo Kim, Kwang-Yul Kim, Won-Tae Kwon, Bo Li, Douglas Nychka, Hee-Seok Oh, Hans von Storch, Xuebin Zhang, and Francis Zwiers. Chunho Cho and Seung-Ki Min co-chaired the committee for the meeting. About two hundred scientists from thirty countries participated in the meeting. Douglas Nychka won the IMSC Achievement Award. The abstracts book is available. Most of presentations are available on-line from the abstracts book.

References

Murphy, A.H., and F.W. Zwiers, 1993: International Meetings on Statistical Climatology, meeting review. BAMS, 79, 1721-1727.