1. A meeting to celebrate Murray Aitkin’s 70 th Birthday.

2. Changes to programme  Mikis Stasinopoulos replaces Goeran Kauermann (Flight problems because of volcanic ash)  Brian Francis probably replaces Peter van der Heijden (laryngitis).

3.  Development of statistical modelling over last 30 years has been rapid and extensive.  This meeting is a celebration of Murray Aitkin’s work over this period and what it has led on to.  Large body of Murray Aitkin’s work which is heavily cited.  Covers a wide spectrum of topics: Simultaneous test procedures, Applications of the EM algorithm, survival models, likelihood inference, latent class models, random effects models, item/response theory, mixture models, discrete random effects, Bayes factors, new approaches to Bayesian inference.

4.  Bock and Aitkin (1981) Marginal maximum likelihood estimation of item parameters: Application of an EM algorithm 967 citations.  Aitkin, Hinde and Anderson (1981) Statistical modelling of data on teaching styles.276 citations  Anderson, and Aitkin (1985) Variance component models with a binary response. 240 citations  Aitkin and Clayton (1980) Fitting of exponential, Weibull and Extreme Value distributions. 211 citations  Aitkin and Rubin (1985) Estimation and hypothesis testing in finite mixture models. 205 citations

5.  Developed through reanalysis of data on teaching styles ( formal, informal, mixed)  Exciting new area in 1980s with distinct research teams developing work and ideas.  Now vast body of work by numerous researchers  Speakers: Hinde, Goldstein, Alfo.

6.  Contributions in Monte Carlo testing, EM fitting of models in the GLM framework, and more recently, new inferential procedures for determining number of groups.  Speakers – Longford.

7.  Investigation of wide variety of new models for data in survival analysis, contingency table analysis and item/response theory.  Work in comparison of correspondence analysis and log-linear models.  Involvement in Statistical Modelling workshops  Speakers: Kauermann, de Falguerolles, Firth, Statiinopoulos.

8.  Likelihood based – Book on Statistical Modelling in GLIM.  New approaches to Bayesian analysis - new book out in July.  Speakers: Liu, Aitkin