The future of statistical research
Statistics is a young discipline and one that is changing very rapidly. Some changes arise as statistical methods and are applied in new application areas while others arise from fresh problems presenting themselves in old application areas. Yet others arise because of the opportunities presented to us by new computing technology. Such new technology permits older statistical methods to be extended -to handle larger samples, more variables, or more complex models, for example. But it also permits entirely new classes of tools to be developed. These developments in turn require new theory to be developed, so that the pattern observed in experimental sciences (with data collection and theory development supporting each other) is paralleled in statistics.
Rapid change is inevitably exciting, and it is perhaps natural at this point to look forward to the future to try to see what might be around the corner. With this in mind, I invited a number of eminent statisticians, with different backgrounds, to give their views on what areas of statistical research were likely to be important over the next ten years or so. I am sure we all recognise the dangers of such prediction -the high probability of being wrong -and I would like to express my appreciation to the authors of the material which follows, not least because of their courage. The articles make fascinating reading.