Filippo Ascolani

I am a last-year PhD student in Statistics at Bocconi University, under the supervision of Antonio Lijoi and Igor Prünster. My research interests are focused especially on Bayesian nonparametric methodologies for complex data structures, both from a theoretical and methodological perspectives. I am also interested in theory of MCMC methods and their scalability in high dimensional problems. Moreover, I am a member of the BayesLab of the Bocconi Institute for Data Science and Analytics (BIDSA) and of the MIDAS Complex Data Modeling Research Network. I am also a teaching assistant for various Statistics and Probability courses. For additional information see my webpage!

During the PhD I had the luck to interact with many students and professors belonging to the Italian statistical community: it has been a very rewarding experience, that determined a personal and academic growth. Therefore, I am looking forward to contributing myself to such stimulating environment. My PhD experience has been a period of incredible growth, both scientific and personal. A large part of the merit goes to the stimulating Italian research environment and to interaction with peers, from which I greatly benefited. Therefore I feel an obligation to pay back the community and try to guarantee a similarly positive experience to as more PhD students as possible. In particular, if elected, I would concentrate on the following two points: 

• I would try to continue (and possibly expand) the opportunities for young researchers to present their work, by organizing (online and in presence) dedicated sessions with dedicated awards.
• The recent pandemic has eliminated most opportunities of networking in the last two years. I would like to encourage and organize in presence meetings with the goal of merging communities from different universities/research centers.

Veronica Ballerini

I am a postdoc at the Department of Statistics, Computer Science and Applications of the University of Florence, working with Fabrizia Mealli. In 2021 I obtained my Ph.D. in Economic Statistics at Sapienza University of Rome, supervised by Brunero Liseo. My research interests are varied, going from official statistics to causal inference; the common thread is the Bayesian approach. I develop methodologies for population size estimation via integration of multiple sources and in the presence of coverage errors. I am particularly devoted to the study of noncentral hypergeometric distributions for not-at-random missing data problems, which have many potential applications in economics and official statistics. On the causal side, I work on the formalization and implementation of models for causal analysis in randomized clinical trials with noncompliance, social experiments, and socioeconomic observational studies. You can find more info on my webpage!

Young-SIS has always promoted the exchange of ideas. Unfortunately, Covid restrictions have heavily impacted the activity of the Society. I would be honored to be on the front line in the y-SIS revival. I aim to build a healthy community where collaboration and continuous exchange are the keywords. I aspire to organize a y-SIS conference in the days immediately before the national SIS meeting, accessible whatever one’s funds’ availability. A young conference would represent the opportunity for us to be protagonists and take our time to share ideas and find new inspiration. There would be room to organize helpful tutorials for early-stage researchers, including “what’s important of a cover letter” and “discovering open access databases.” Then, I would push to organize hybrid thematic events during the year to enforce the connections among y-SIS members and members of young international Societies. Feel free to ask me more! veronica.ballerini@unifi.it

Riccardo Giubilei

I am Riccardo Giubilei, and I am a postdoctoral research fellow at Luiss Guido Carli in Rome. Besides, I am teaching Social Network Analysis at Luiss Guido Carli and Introduction to Data Science at University of Bari. I obtained by PhD in Statistics (XXXIII cycle) from Sapienza University of Rome in 2021. My current research lines involve the fields of Statistical Learning, Nonparametric Statistics, and Statistical Analysis of Networks. My two main projects focus on a density-peak approach to clustering graph-structured data objects, and on a new model building up a unifying framework for supervised classification and regression with structured and mixed-type data.

I have applied for the board of Young SIS for two reasons: 1) I believe that this group has a crucial role in connecting and supporting young researchers; 2) I am convinced I can make a significant contribution to achieving even more ambitious goals. As I put my heart and soul into everything I do, I will make the group's interests among my top priorities if elected. I strongly believe that my organizational skills and sense of initiative would represent a valuable addition to the board. My main goals involve enhancing the group's national and international visibility, and increasing the efforts towards creating new opportunities for young researchers. I will promote the creation of synergistic collaborations with national organizations that support young researchers (e.g., ADI), as well as the establishment of networks both with young national groups from other disciplines and with young statistics groups from other countries.

Matteo Iacopini

I am a Lecturer (tenure track) in Statistics at Queen Mary University of London. Previously, I have been a Marie-Curie researcher at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a post-doc researcher at Scuola Normale of Pisa. In July 2018 I have obtained my PhD jointly from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (in Economics) and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (in Mathématiques Appliquées). My research interests focus on Bayesian statistics, Tensor calculus in statistics, Time series analysis, and Nonparametric statistics. I have also experience in modelling high dimensional data and network data. I am fascinated by current statistical challenges, such as the modelling of multi-dimensional and/or complex data structures. In particular, I work on time series models for these classes of data following the Bayesian approach. Also, I enjoy organizing scientific events and teaching, which I believe promote the understanding the significant role that statistics plays in answering everyday questions, as well as in the advancement of academic research. At present, y-SIS is a reference organization for young statisticians in Italy, and it exerts a fundamental role for stimulating the scientific collaboration of PhDs and junior researchers. Building on my personal experience and borrowing from that of its current officers, I would really enjoy being part of the team of y-SIS officers, for helping in its complex yet stimulating growth process. In particular, I would like to exploit my international and inter-disciplinary network and to share my scientific knowledge and organizational experience for serving as officer. During my PhD and career, I have worked in Italy, France, and Netherlands, and I have had the opportunity to approach statistics from different perspectives, with a focus on the Bayesian approach. This has allowed me to meet Italian and French statisticians, both in the academy and at international meetings, such as BNP events (Paris 2017, Oxford 2019, Cyprus 2022), SIS (Palermo 2018), ISBA (Edinburgh 2018), among the others. Moreover, as member of the organizing committee of workshops and sessions at international conferences, I have gained experience in organising and managing scientific events as well as in grant-writing. This has allowed me to understand the importance of being part of a solid international scientific community and, possibly, an interdisciplinary research network as key drivers of success in the organisation of scientific events. Therefore, my experience would be an asset for y-SIS and allow the promotion of its activities. I believe in the great potential of StaTalk meetings and intend to promote their development to make them an annual meeting and a reference especially for young statisticians and PhDs. I am also convinced that y-SIS should implement some activities of interest for junior researchers, such as the organization of workshops in its own, in addition to organized sessions at SIS meetings. I firmly believe that the excellent work that y-SIS has already done through its officers should be continued and improved during the following years by developing the existing and new activities of the section. The long-term goal is to establish y-SIS as a reference institution: a place to meet peers, exchange ideas, and work together in an informal and stimulating environment. This would allow achieving the twofold goal of promoting statistics and developing the individual career of young researchers.

I am a Lecturer in Statistics at Queen Mary University of London. My research interests are designing Bayesian statistical methods of multi-dimensional data (e.g., networks) and developing nonparametric models for time series data with applications to economics, finance, and sociology. I strongly believe in the potential of y-SIS for increasing the visibility and promoting the research of its members. My candidature as a board member is motivated by the need to provide a live community for y-SIS members where their work can be valorised. Therefore, I intend to share my expertise and experience to support y-SIS in promoting the advancement of statistics among PhD students and junior researchers. My proposals include improving the y-SIS website (and social media) by creating a list advertising job offers, grants, and seminars on statistics, as well as communicating the achievements of its members. Finally, I suggest the creation of a webinar series for y-SIS.

Giorgia Zaccaria

I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods at University of Milano-Bicocca. In February 2022, I obtained my Ph.D. (XXXIV cycle) in Methodological Statistics at the Department of Statistical Sciences of Sapienza University of Rome. My research interests focus, mainly but not only, on model-based clustering and dimensionality reduction for modelling multidimensional phenomena. I am currently working also on the missing data problem in the context of mixture models with a specific covariance structure able to detect hierarchical relationships among variables. My post-doc is giving me the opportunity to approach the robust dimension reduction techniques and robust mixture models I would like to deepen in the near future. I am passionate about the methodological and computational aspects of novel approaches motivated by real-data problems. If you are interested, you can find more info about me on my webpage!

I strongly believe in y-SIS and its aims as a group of promoting networks among young statisticians and broader, international discussions on statistical research with young people from other statistical societies. I would like to contribute to enhancing the role of y-SIS in the Italian Statistical Society and the promotion of activities addressed to young statisticians. In my opinion, we can be the driving force for innovations and, broadly speaking, for connecting Society and Statistics. If I will have the opportunity to be part of the y-SIS board, I will apply myself to increase the role of y-SIS in connection with SIS, organize workshops and seminars that involve Ph.D. candidates to give them opportunities for research exchanges and networking and advertise academic positions in y-SIS website. I would therefore be extremely happy to be part of the y-SIS board trying to reach relevant goals for the young statisticians’ community!