This proposal describes plans for the Fifth North American Meeting of New Researchers in Statistics and Probability, a conference, sponsored by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, to be organized by and held for junior researchers. The primary objective is to provide a much needed venue for interaction among new researchers. In contrast with large meetings, this conference will be restricted to 50-60 participants. Sessions will be followed by discussions and breaks to facilitate interactions. The proposed conference will take place July 31 - August 3, 2001, on the Georgia Institute of Technology campus in Atlanta, Georgia. Housing, meals, and conference facilities will be provided on campus. The Joint Statistical Meetings will be held in Atlanta the following week, August 5-9, providing an easy opportunity for conference participants to attend both events. Participants will be statisticians and probabilists whom have received their Ph.D. since 1996 or are expecting to receive their degree by 2002. Each participant will present a talk or poster. Topics will include the gamut of statistical research from theory and methods to applications. Effort will be made to attract researchers from biostatistics (an area under-represented in prior conferences). There will be four senior speaker sessions in which topics of particular interest to new researchers will be presented. To date, Professor Bradley Efron from Stanford University, Professor Lynne Billard from the University of Georgia, and Dr. Glen Satten from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have all accepted our invitations to speak. Two panel discussions on the last day of the conference will address issues on journal publication and funding, respectively.
