Abstract submissions for the ECSS Showcase are now open!
Join The Victorian and Tasmanian Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia for the 2026 Belz Lecture and Early Career and Student Statistician (ECSS) Showcase. This hybrid event will begin with the ECSS Showcase, featuring presentations from early career and student statisticians, followed by afternoon tea. The annual Belz Lecture will then be delivered by Dr Carolyn Huston, CSIRO.
Date: Friday 20 November 2026
Time: 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Format: Hybrid
Venue: Peter Hall building, The University of Melbourne. If attending online, Zoom details will be provided closer to event date.
Schedule:
- 2:00–3:30 pm: ECSS talks (hybrid)
- 3:30–4:30 pm: ECSS poster session and afternoon tea (in person only; sponsored by UoM Maths & Stats)
- 4:30–5:30 pm: Belz Lecture (hybrid)
This event is free but registration is required. The ECSS talks and Belz Lecture will be held in the Evan Williams theatre or the JH Mitchell Theatre (to be confirmed after registrations close). The ECSS poster session and afternoon tea will be held in the Staff Tearoom.
The evening will conclude with a canapés dinner at The Clyde at 5:45 pm. Dinner tickets will be available for purchase soon on a separate event page. Each dinner ticket includes shared food platters and one drink.
Call for Abstracts:
Abstract submissions for the ECSS Showcase are now open and will close at
11:59 pm AEDT on Wednesday 7 October 2026. Early Career and Student Statisticians (as defined by SSA) are invited to submit an abstract here. Awards will be presented for best oral and poster presentations.
Eligibility: The Showcase is open to Early Career and Student Statisticians - those who are either:
- studying statistics or a related field; or
- have graduated within the past 5 years and work in a statistics-related area.
There are no age restrictions, and both SSA members and non-members are welcome to submit.
The Belz Lecture abstract will be available soon.
Belz Lecturer Bio: Dr Carolyn Huston, CSIRO
Carolyn Huston is a senior research consultant at CSIRO with a background in statistics who enjoys applying statistical thinking from data design, modelling, reporting on uncertainty etc. to real life problems where results and methods will be used. She has led multiple projects related to bushfire resilience planning, particularly in the domain of improving electrical network safety.
Key achievements include involvement with the Victorian Government Powerline Bushfire Safety Program (PBSP), contributing to numerical methods that guided $750 million of government investment. This investment resulted in an estimated 60% bushfire safety improvement across electrical distribution networks, and improved statistically supported regulation to support operation of new technologies.
Continued work in this area has led to deep expertise in understanding the factors that cause bushfires; prevent or slow bushfires; and understanding and reporting on different aspects of bushfire consequence. In addition to bushfire commercial work, Carolyn is currently contributing to the strategic development of a number of natural hazards models and emulators, as well as programs to identify efficiency opportunities in manufacturing and supply chain processes.
Altogether her work requires a keen interest in understanding how to improve uptake and effectiveness of AI (as a complex model) in real-life decision making. As a consequence of these interests, Carolyn is currently performing more formal research in responsible innovation and operationalisation and dissemination of equitable AI tools in a trusted and defensible way.
She is also an Officer and Chair of the Data61 Diversity Inclusion and Belonging (DIB) committee, and the Analytics and Decision Sciences (ADS) representative for Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) activities and reporting.
Acknowledgements
Organising team: Rick Tankard, Tong Chen, Leon Di Stefano, Elena Tartaglia and Susan Wei
Local support at the University of Melbourne:
Pavel Krupskiy, Rosie Pingitore and Cait Pryse. Thank you to the School of Mathematics and Statistics for sponsoring this event.
For further information, please get in touch with the Victorian and Tasmanian Branch at vic.branch@statsoc.org.au
@StatSocAus
