Presidential Keynote Address

Meet Alan Agresti - The IBC 2026 Presidential Keynote Speaker

The International Biometric Society is pleased to announce that the IBC2026 Presidential keynote speaker will be offered by Alan Agresti, whose contributions to categorial data analyses have fundamentally influenced the research in this area. 

Bio: Dr. Alan Agresti is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Statistics at the University of Florida. He is author or co-author of about 200 articles and of nine books, including "Categorical Data Analysis" (3rd ed. 2013), "Foundations of Linear and Generalized Linear Models" (2015), "Foundations of Statistics for Data Scientists" (2022), and "Bayesian Statistics: A Primer for Data Scientists, with R and Python" (2026). A fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the
Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Agresti has received an honorary doctorate from De Montfort University in the U.K., the Statistician of the Year award from the Chicago chapter of the American Statistical Association, and the first Herman Callaert Leadership Award in Biostatistical Education and Dissemination from Hasselt University, Belgium. He has given short courses and lectures in more than 30
nations, and in fall terms 2008-2014 he was a visiting professor at the Statistics Department of Harvard University.

Abstract: Historical highlights in the development of methodology for categorical data analysis

This talk surveys the development of basic methods of categorical data analysis, starting with Karl Pearson's introduction of the chi-squared test in 1900 and early contributions by R. A. Fisher and G. Udny Yule. It focuses on statistical methods such as analyzing associations in contingency tables, logistic regression and probit models, loglinear models, and Bayesian approaches.  The talk concludes by considering the future of such traditional methods of Statistical Science as data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence continue to evolve.