Bayesianismo - História: Chile

Bayesians in Chile
by Fernando Quintana


The development of Bayesian statistics in Chile started only a few years ago. We all agree that Pilar Iglesias has been the spiritual leader of the group. After working with Carlos Pereira, she received the Doctoral degree from the U. of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. She later became a faculty member in the Department of Statistics of the P. U. Católica de Chile (PUC) in 1994.

From the very day of her arrival at PUC, Pilar started making contact with faculty members at other universities. Consequently, the U. of La Serena, Chile hosted the First Bayesian Workshop, in January of 1996. It was a short event, with a very reduced number of participants, but being the first entirely Bayesian meeting in Chile, it had a special relevance. The workshop came as the result of a joint effort of Pilar, Victor Salinas from the U. de Santiago de Chile (USACH), another former student of C. Pereira in USP, and some local faculty members. Certainly, the whole project was strongly motivated by the Brazilian tradition.

Later, in May of 1996, the U. of Valparaíso (UV) hosted the First Workshop on Models with Errors in Variables and Bayesian Inference. Again, Pilar was at the heart of the organization, sharing responsibilities with Manuel Galea of the UV, and Reinaldo Arellano (PUC), both former students of Heleno Bolfarine in USP. This was also the first time that the Journal of the Chilean Statistical Society (SOCHE) edited a special issue, completely devoted to the articles presented in this meeting.

The Second Workshop was hosted by the U. of Antofagasta (UA) in January of 1997. The local organizers were Héctor Varela, Guillermo Mondaca (former students of Vicente Quesada at U. Complutense de Madrid), and Juan Duarte (former student of Domingo Morales, also at U. Complutense de Madrid), all of them faculty members of the UA.

The Third Workshop was held at the U. Austral de Chile in Valdívia (UAV) in January of 1998, where it was decided that the future versions would take place biannually. The local host was Eliana Scheihing from UAV (former student of Michel Mouchart in the U. of Louvain). A future issue of the SOCHE journal will concentrate on articles presented in Valdívia, this time including discussion. The Third Workshop had the largest international attendance so far, including Manuel Mendoza from ITAM in Mexico, Michel Mouchart and Heleno Bolfarine.

The Chilean chapter of ISBA was established in 1997. We currently have about 25 members from nearly all the universities in Chile, including some local graduate students and some current and former doctoral students in USP. The reader is kindly invited to guess who has been the chair of our organization right from its birth.

The main topics of research conducted by Chilean Bayesians are: de Finetti-type Theorems (Pilar Iglesias); Bayesian modeling with errors in variables and with elliptical errors (Reinaldo Arellano, Pilar Iglesias, PUC; Manuel Galea, UV); nonparametric Bayesian methods (Héctor Varela, Juan Duarte, Guillermo Mondaca, UA; Eliana Scheihing, UAV; Victor Salinas, USACH; Fernando Quintana, PUC); Bayesian modeling (Arturo Mora, María Elena Valenzuela, U. de Concepcion; Ernesto San Martín, currently in U. Louvain). We also have to mention Alicia Carriquiry, from Iowa State U., Heleno Bolfarine, and Guido del Pino (PUC) who have repeatedly given us their support and encouragement in our research activities.

Bayesian statistics in Chile is at its early stages, but starting to grow and develop. Indeed, Pilar and Reinaldo have advised a number of Master theses at PUC, and some Ph. D. theses at USP. We expect to keep climbing the ladder in the coming years.

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