The IX Latin American Conference on Probability and Mathematical Statistics is held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, from March 23 to March 27, 2004. Conference organizers structure activities to provide as much opportunity as possible for discussions among conference participants, and to create an environment that is welcoming of young researchers and graduate students who wish to present their work. Several introductory short courses on topics ranging from stochastic calculus with financial applications, to graphical models, and model selection in a Bayesian framework, are taught. In addition, special discussion sessions on course topics are organized, to facilitate the interaction between young researchers and their more senior colleagues.
In the past twelve years, collaboration between Latin American and US mathematical scientists has increased many-fold. One important consequence has been the growth of well-trained students from Latin American institutions who choose to enroll in graduate programs in American universities and who then develop close and enduring ties to the US academic community. In part, this increased interaction is due to the series of Latin American conferences in probability and statistics, that are generally held every two years in a Latin American country, and that typically include a significant contingent of US participants. The conferences have grown both in size and importance over time, and have contributed to the creation of a community of applied probabilists and statisticians who are eager to work in interdisciplinary teams to solve complex problems of importance to society. The National Science Foundation, through its funding of travel awards for US scientists and for scientists from selected Latin American countries excluding Cuba , has been an important sponsor of these workshops. The funding requested from NSF for the IX Latin American conference will be used to partially cover travel expenses of 10 US participants and of six Latin American conference participants from countries other than Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela.
