Yesterday was a moving day for me: I was awarded permanent residency in Taiwan, receiving the Plum Blossom Card (for senior professionals). It was especially moving because the director of Hsinchu immigration, along with a delegate of immigration officers and a TV reporter visited me at my NTHU office to award me the card in person. I was extremely touched and amazed. I learned of the intended visit only in the morning, and serendipitously my family was able to join the occasion.

Inbal Yahav just received her PhD in Operations Research and Data Mining. Her work combines OR, statistics, and data mining approaches and methods for healthcare decision support systems. She received the Golub award for her  dissertation and is now a visiting Assistant Professor at the Smith School of Business.

Prof Shmueli will present two talks as the guest of Statistics Week at ASU, March 20-21. The topics of the talks are:
1. Statistical Challenges in Modern Biosurveillance,
2. Explanatory vs. Predictive Modeling in Scientific Research.

Prof. Shmueli will deliver the 1st Israeli Statistical Association's Special National Seminar talk on January 16, 2006. More details here (in Hebrew).