This annual report is intended to provide general information of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics (ISM) and the research activities of the institute in the past two years. Within this period ISM made two important structural changes, namely, the reorganization of the inter-university research institutes and the establishment of a new research center.
ISM was originally founded in 1944 as the national research institute for statistical science. On April 2004, the Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS) was established based on the National University Corporation Law. On this occasion, ISM became one of member institutes of the ROIS along with the National Institute of Informatics, the National Institute of Genetics and the National Institute of Polar Research. This was the largest structural changes since 1985 when the ISM became an inter-university research institute. Besides the original mission of promoting statistical science, we now have a new mission of developing an innovative methodology for approaching to complex problems related to life science, earth science, environmental science and human sciences from the view point of information and systems. Taking advantage of this reorganization, ISM will make every effort towards further promotion of research.
Another important change in the past two years was the establishment of a new research center inside the ISM. In the contemporary age represented as information society, the role of statistical science is becoming more important. Namely, due to the rapid progress of information technology, we now can access to huge amount of data in various fields of sciences. In this situation, the development of the method for the prediction and knowledge discovery is crucially important. Based on the recognition of this importance, the ISM established the Prediction and Knowledge Discovery Research Center in 2003 and started three research projects.
Genshiro Kitagawa
Director-General
