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Prize for Young Statisticians

2024 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

The 2024 competition has now closed. We thank all entrants and look forward to announcing the results later in the year.

The 2025 competition will also be launched later this year.

Prize for Young Statisticians

2023 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

The International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS) is pleased to announce the results of the 2023 IAOS Young Statisticians Prize. The standard of submissions was very high and we would like to thank all those who entered.

For the first time in the Prize’s history, we have awarded a joint first place prize. Two papers stood out on scientific/strategic merit, originality, applicability in statistical offices and quality of exposition.

The first place winners will present their papers at a mutually agreed international conference. Winning papers are also eligible to be published in a future issue of the SJIAOS.

The IAOS would like to congratulate the winners and thank all entrants. We also thank the International Judging panel for their efforts.

The four winning papers and their authors are:

Ms. Joanne Yoon
Ms. Joanne Yoon
Mr. Nelson Chua
Mr. Nelson Chua
Mr. Benjamin Long
Mr. Benjamin Long
Mr. Ryan Covey
Mr. Ryan Covey
Dr. Alba Cervantes Loreto
Dr. Alba Cervantes Loreto

Joint First Place winners:

Ms. Joanne Yoon (Statistics Canada):
Classifying Respondent Comments from the 2021 Canadian Census of Population using Machine Learning Methods

Mr. Nelson Chua and Mr. Benjamin Long (Australian Bureau of Statistics):
It’s time to build a small area estimation methodology for time-to-event data

Second Place:

Mr. Ryan Covey (Australian Bureau of Statistics):
Integrating Big Data and Survey Data for Efficient Estimation of the Median

Third Place:

Dr. Alba Cervantes Loreto (Statistics New Zealand):
Modelling self-identification of Māori businesses in Aotearoa New Zealand

The special commendation for a paper from a developing nation is awarded to

Mr. Benjamin C.H. Chan, Mr. Ian Y.C. Ng and Ms. Natalie K.P. Chung
Mr. Benjamin C.H. Chan, Mr. Ian Y.C. Ng and Ms. Natalie K.P. Chung

Mr. Benjamin C.H. Chan, Mr. Ian Y.C. Ng and Ms. Natalie K.P. Chung (Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong, China):
Anomaly Detection in Trade Declarations using Deep Learning Techniques: A Risk-assessment Approach to Identify Misclassification and Incorrect Valuation

Our congratulations to

Prize for Young Statisticians

2022 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

The International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS) is pleased to announce the results of the 2022 IAOS Young Statisticians Prize. Once again, the standard was very high and we would like to thank all those who entered.

The winner will present their paper at a mutually agreed international conference. Winning papers are also eligible to be published in a future issue of the SJIAOS.

The IAOS would like to congratulate the winners and thank all entrants. We also thank the International Judging panel for their efforts.

The three winning papers and their authors are:

Dr. Erin Lundy
Dr. Erin Lundy
Mr. Juan Carlos Galvez Sainz de Cueto
Mr. Juan Carlos Galvez Sainz de Cueto
Mr. Jorge Fernandez Calatrava
Mr. Jorge Fernandez Calatrava
Mr. Lasai Barrenada Taleb
Mr. Lasai Barrenada Taleb
Dr. Andreea Luisa Erciulescu
Dr. Andreea Luisa Erciulescu
  1. Dr. Erin Lundy (Statistics Canada):
     Predicting the quality and evaluating the use of administrative data for the 2021 Canadian Census of Population
  2. Mr. Juan Carlos Galvez Sainz de Cueto, Mr. Jorge Fernandez Calatrava and Mr. Lasai Barrenada Taleb (Statistics Spain):
    Timeliness reduction on industrial turnover index based on machine learning algorithms
  3. Dr. Andreea Luisa Erciulescu (Westat, USA):
    Statistical data integration models to reconcile health official statistics 

The special commendation for a paper from a developing nation is:

Ms. Atika Nashirah Hasyyati
Ms. Atika Nashirah Hasyyati

Our congratulations to Statistics Canada for winning first place for the third year in a row, to BPS-Indonesia for their second special commendation, and to Statistics Spain and Westat for their first winning submissions.

2021 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

The International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS) is pleased to announce the results of the 2022 IAOS Young Statisticians Prize. Once again, the standard was very high and we would like to thank all those who entered.

The winner will present their paper at a mutually agreed international conference. Winning papers are also eligible to be published in a future issue of the SJIAOS.

The IAOS would like to congratulate the winners and thank all entrants. We also thank the International Judging panel for their efforts.

The three winning papers and their authors are:

  1. Elham Sirag and Mr. Gautier Gissler (Statistics Canada):
    Estimating excess mortality in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic: Statistical methods adapted for rapid response in an evolving crisis
  2. Kevin Kloos (Statistics Netherlands (CBS): 
    A new generic method to improve machine learning applications in official statistics
  3. Mr. Caio Gonçalves (João Pinheiro Foundation) and Luna Hidalgo (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE)):
    Model-based single-month unemployment rate estimates for the Brazilian Labour Force Survey 

The special commendation for a paper from a developing nation is:

2020 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

The IAOS is very pleased to announce the results of the 2020 YSP competition. Once again, the standard was very high, and we would like to thank all those who entered. This year, in addition to first, second and third place winners, a new category for a paper from a developing nation was awarded

The winner will present their paper at the next IAOS conference. Winning papers are also eligible to be published in a future issue of the SJIAOS.

The IAOS would like to congratulate the winners and thank all entrants. We would also like to thank the International Judging panel for their efforts.

John Pullinger
IAOS President
2019 – 2021

Second place
The R-Package surveysd: Estimating standard errors for Complex Surveys with a Rotating Panel Design
Mr. Johannes Gussenbauer and Mr. Gregor de Cillia (Statistik Austria)

Third place
Big Data, Differential Privacy and National Statistical Organisations”
Mr. James Bailie (Australian Bureau of Statistics)

Commendation for a paper from a developing nation went to:
Household Consumption Allocation and the Collective Household Model: Children Share of Household Resources in The Gambia
Mr. Madi Mangan (The Gambia Bureau of Statistics)

2019 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

2019 First-prize winner, Vianney Costemalle, presenting his paper at the 62nd ISI World Statistics Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (August 2019).

The results of the 2019 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians are as follows:

First Prize
“Detecting geographical differencing problems in the context of spatial data dissemination”
Vianney Costemalle (INSEE, France)

Second Prize
“Administrative data informed donor imputation in the Australian Census of Population and Housing”

James Farnell and Peta Darby (Australian Bureau of Statistics)

Third Prize
“Using address histories to improve the link rates of surveys in the Integrated Data Infrastructure”

Nancy Wang (Statistics New Zealand)

 
Honourable mention 
Be a detective for a day: How to detect falsified interviews with Statistics

Marlene Weinaeur (Statistik Austria)

2018 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

2018 First-prize winner, Ms. Helle Visk, receiving her award at the IAOS-OECD Conference in Paris, France (19-21 September 2018). Also in this photo (from left to right), Ms Gemma Van Halderen (YSP Coordinator), Mr. Mario Palma (IAOS President 2017-2019), Peter Van de Ven (Head of National Accounts, OECD).

The results of the 2018 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians are as follows:

First Prize
An index-based approah to determine partnership in register-based census
Ms. Helle Visk (Statistics Estonia)

Second Prize
Reproducible Analytical Pipelines in Offender Management Statistics
Mr. Christopher Fairbanks (UK Government Statistical Service)

Third Prize
Adjusting for linkage errors to analyse coverage of the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) and the administrative population (IDI-ERP)
Mr. Hochang Choi (Statistics New Zealand)

2017 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

2017 First-prize winner, Ms. Hannah Thomas, presenting her paper at the 61st ISI World Statistics Congress in Marrakech, Morocco, in July 2017.

The results of the 2017 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians are as follows:

First Prize
The Dissemination Game: How to communicate official statistics to non-expert users
Ms. Hannah Thomas (United Kingdom)

Second Prize
Telematics Data for Official Statistics: An Experience with Big Data
Mr. Nicholas Husek (Australia)

Third Prize
Improving Seasonal Adjustment by Accounting for Sample Error Correlation Using State Space Models
Mr. Andreas Mayer (Australia)

2016 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

2016 First-prize winner, Mr. Rolando Gonzales Martinez, receiving his award from Ms. Ola Awad (IAOS President 2015-2017) at the 15th IAOS Conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE (6-8 December 2016).

The results of the 2016 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians are as follows:

First Prize
Balancing Input-Output tables with Bayesian Slave-raiding ants
Mr. Rolando Gonzales Martinez (Bolivia)

Second Prize
Variance reduction using a non-informative sampling design
Mr. Thomas Zimmerman (Germany)

Third Prize
CURIOS: A framework to optimize CAPI surveys using paradata
Mr. Antoine Rebecq and Mr.  Thomas Merly-Alpa (France)

2015 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

2015 First-prize winner, Mr. Andreas Mayer, presenting his paper at the 60th ISI World Statistics Congress in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 26-31 July 2015.

The results of the 2015 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians are as follows:

First Prize
Big Data and Semantic Technology: A Future for Data Integration, Exploration and Visualisation
Andreas Mayer and Andrew Harwood (Australia)

Second Prize
Targeted record swapping on grid-based statistics in Hungary
Beata Nagy (Hungary)

Third Prize
Iterative method for the reducing the impact of outlying data points: ensuring data completeness
Svetlana Jesilevska (Latvia)

2014 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

The results of the 2014 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians are as follows:

First Prize
“Linking, selecting cut-offs, and examining quality in the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI)
by Laura O’Sullivan (New Zealand)

Second Prize
“Transforming how we produce statistics: An inside perspective”
by Michelle Feyen (New Zealand)

Third Prize
“Domains similarity models in synthetic estimation”
by Andrius Čiginas (Lithuania)

2013 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

The results of the 2013 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians are as follows:

First Prize
Using kernel methods to visualise crime data
by Kieran Martin and Martin Ralphs [United Kingdom]

Second Prize
The policeman and the statistician – on the quality of the raw data in official statistics
by Anton Färnström [Sweden]

Third Prize
ABS iPhone App – the way of the future?
by David Sullivan [Australia]

2012 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

The results of the 2012 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians are as follows:

First Prize
Exploratory Analysis of the Patterns of Missing Data in the UIS Education Database
Miguel Ibanez Salinas; UNESCO

Second Prize
Elementary Aggregate Indices and Lower Level Substitution Bias
Duncan Elliott (primary), Joseph Winton, and Robert O‘Neill; United Kingdom

Third Prize
A Case Against the Skip Statement
Samuel Spencer; Australia

2011 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

The results of the 2011 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians are as follows:

First Prize
Morpheus: an innovative approach to remote data access
Julia Höninger (Germany)

Second Prize
Widening the data net: NSO leadership role
Sarah Conn (Australia)

Third Prize
Trajectory modelling of longitudinal non-response in business surveys
Kate Smaill (New Zealand)

Prize for Young Statisticians

2024 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians

Calling all Young Official Statisticians
Win a trip to an international statistical conference

The International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS) is pleased to announce the launch of the 2024 IAOS Young Statisticians Prize. This international prize encourages young statisticians to take an active interest in official statistics and is awarded for the best paper in the field of official statistics written by a young statistician.

In addition to the monetary prizes, the first-place winner(s) receive travel funds to present their paper at an international conference.  Details of the conference will be decided in conjunction with the winner and may include the 2024 IAOS-ISI Regional Conference to be held in Mexico City, Mexico in May 2024.

Submissions should address and propose solutions to pressing methodological or strategic issues in the area of official statistics at the regional, national or international level, be no more than 4,000 words, be submitted in English and should not have been previously presented in a public forum or published. A maximum of three co-authors is allowed for each submission and an author can participate in only one submission.

An international panel will judge submissions based on the following criteria:

  • Scientific and/or strategic merit
  • Originality
  • Applicability of the ideas in the practice of statistical organizations
  • Quality of the exposition

The 2020 prize winner, Ms. Kenza Sallier, shared her tips on preparing a winning submission in this presentation. Her presentation is recommended viewing.

Papers must be submitted before 11:59 pm (UTC) on 10 February 2024.

The decision of the panel will be final. Prizes will only be awarded if papers of significant quality are submitted.

The author(s) of the best paper will be awarded:

  • A cash prize valued at €1,500 (divided among co-authors if applicable)
  • An opportunity to present the paper at a mutually agreed international statistical conference, with
    airfare and hotel accommodation provided (for only one author in situations of co-authorship)
  • Two years of IAOS membership
  • A certificate of award from the IAOS acknowledging success in this competition.

Prizes may also be awarded to those in second and third place:

  • 2nd  Place – A cash prize valued at €1000, 2 years of IAOS membership, and a certificate
  • 3rd  Place – A cash prize valued at €500, 2 years of IAOS membership, and a certificate

A prize will also be awarded to the best paper from a developing country:

  • Best paper – honorable mention, 2 years of IAOS membership, and a certificate.

Prize winning papers will be considered for publication in the Statistical Journal of the IAOS (SJIAOS).

To be eligible, authors (and co-authors) must:

  • Be under the age of 35 on 10 February 2024 and
  • Be employed[1] by an official statistical organization[2] as at 10 February 2024

Submissions must comprise a maximum of 4,000 words (including abstract, titles and references) plus the filled-in submission template plus a cover page that must include:

  • A line that it is a “Submission for the 2024 IAOS Prize for Young Statisticians”
  • The title of the paper
  • The name(s), prefix(s), job title(s), full date(s) of birth, age(s) and e-mail addresses of the author(s)
  • The name(s) of the employing official statistical agency(ies)
  • An abstract of no more than 15 lines.

Any material beyond the core text of the paper, such as table of contents, references, appendices, tables, and graphs, must be contained within the maximum of 4,000 words. Any submission exceeding 4,000 words plus cover page will be disqualified.

Please submit papers, in MS Word or compatible format[3] to iaosysp2024@gmail.com

You may also submit questions you have about the competition to this e-mail address.

Guidelines for papers (130 KB)

Submission template (63.7 KB)


[1] Full-time, part-time, or contractual employees or interns are eligible and employees or interns who also teach or study on a part-time basis are eligible. Professional consultants or members of the teaching profession carrying out a contract with the NSO agency are not eligible.

[2] A National or International Statistical Organization or the Statistics Department of a Central Bank, Ministry or Regional or Local Government in a decentralized National Statistical System or non-statistical international organization.

[3] In Times New Roman (size 12) font, with side, top, and bottom margins of 1 inch (25.4 millimeters).