Japanese Federation ofStatistical Science Associations

July 18, 2024
The Institute of Statistical Mathematics (ISM)
Japanese Federation of Statistical Science Associations (JFSSA)

Announcement of the Awardee ofthe Fifth Akaike Memorial
Lecture AwardAwardee/Speaker: Professor Arnaud Doucet(University of Oxford, UKand Senior Staff Research Scientist, Google DeepMind)
Lecture Title: “Schrödinger Bridges - Computation and Applications”
Time and Date: 10:00–12:00 Monday, September 2, 2024 (*)
Professor Doucet’s lecture will be presented at the plenary session of the Japanese Joint
Statistical Meeting 2024.
Professor Doucet will speak on-site.
The Japanese Joint Statistical Meeting 2024 will be held in a hybrid format with online andon-site participation options.

Venue: Tokyo University of Science, Kagurazaka Campus(https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/campus/kagurazaka.html)(*) Detailed information will be uploaded on the websites of ISM (http://www.ism.ac.jp/index_e.html) and related organizations.

Professor Arnaud Doucet

Born in 1970, Professor Doucet is a leading international researcher in Monte
Carlo methods and their applications to Bayesian statistics, and more recently, inmachine learning. He has significantly contributed to the rapid advancement ofthese fields. Active in both academia and industry, Professor Doucet has recently
focused on pioneering research using machine learning techniques. His innovative
approach has led to remarkable results in new areas, placing him at the forefront of
the industry.
Dr. Hirotugu Akaike (https://www.ism.ac.jp/akaikememorial/index-e.html)
The late Dr. Akaike was a statistician who proposed the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). He
established a novel paradigm of statistical modeling, characterized by a predictive point of view,that was completely distinct from traditional statistical theory. Dr. Akaike’s research has greatly
influenced a wide range of research areas. To recognize his achievements, the Akaike MemorialLecture Award was launched in May 2016.

Press Contact: URA Station, ISM
E-mail: ask-ura@ism.ac.jp, TEL: +81-50-5533-8580

July 18, 2024

Announcement of the Awardee ofthe Fifth Akaike Memorial Lecture Award
Summary
The Akaike Memorial Lecture Award was launched in May 2016. The purpose of this award is tocommemorate the achievements of the late Dr. Akaike, who established a novel paradigm to evaluate thepredictive accuracy of statistical modeling. Dr. Akaike proposed a metric for model selection, the Akaike
Information Criterion (AIC), based on an approach completely different from the statistical theories common
at the time. Dr. Akaike’s ideas have influenced a wide range of theoretical and applied research areas.
This award is now jointly managed by the Institute of Statistical Mathematics (ISM) and the JapaneseFederation of Statistical Science Associations (JFSSA). The awardee is selected and the memorial lecture by
the awardee is held at the Japanese Joint Statistical Meeting (JJSM) once every two years.
The Fifth Award goes to Professor Arnaud Doucet, a professor at the University of Oxford and a Senior
Staff Research Scientist of Google DeepMind. Professor Doucet is a leading international researcher inMonte Carlo methods and their applications to Bayesian statistics and, more recently, in machine learning.
With his innovative approach, Professor Doucet has achieved remarkable results in new areas as well. The
award ceremony and memorial lecture will be held during at the plenary session of JJSM 2024 which will beheld in a hybrid format with online and on-site participation options on September 2 at the Tokyo Universityof Science, Kagurazaka, Tokyo. Professor Doucet will visit the venue and deliver the memorial lecture onsite.

Reasons for the Award
Professor Doucet is a leading international expert in Monte Carlo methods and their application to Bayesianstatistics and, more recently, in machine learning. Since the early 2000s, he has published a series ofinnovative studies on the theory and applications of particle filter, contributing to the rapid progress of thecorresponding field. More recently, Professor Doucet has shifted to pioneering research incorporatingmachine learning techniques, and his innovative approach with outstanding results in new areas has led theindustry to the forefront.
Professor Doucet was appointed to ISM in 2009 as a full-time project professor and has frequently visited
ISM as a visiting professor since then to continue to promote collaborative research. Professor Doucet has
also been in close contact with researchers in the field of statistical science in Japan, presenting lectures atworkshops and seminars organized by ISM and at the Japan Statistical Society (JSS) when he travels to Japan.
Professor Doucet is active not only in academia but also in industry, becoming a full-time Senior Staff
Research Scientist at Google DeepMind in April 2023.

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Professor Doucet’s outstanding international contributions to the broad field of statistical science areworthy of the Akaike Memorial Lecture Award. For these reasons, the Selection Committee has decided toaward the Fifth Akaike Memorial Lecture Award to Professor Doucet.

The Fifth Awardee: Professor Arnaud Doucet
Research Achievements
Professor Arnaud Doucet is widely recognized as a prominent contributor to the theory andcomputational methods of Bayesian statistics and machine learning. He has published more than 300
research papers and books. In particular, Professor Doucet's work on particle filtering and its related
technologies has strongly influenced both the theory and applications of statistics.
Particle filtering is a technique for sequentially estimating and generating missing variables, and it isused in a wide range of fields, including robotics, econometrics, geolocation systems, and biomedicine.
Professor Doucet has achieved various research outcomes in this area. For example, the Particle Markov
Chain Monte Carlo method developed by Professor Doucet and his colleagues elegantly combines particle
filtering with Markov Chain Monte Carlo, enabling the simultaneous estimation of missing variables andparameters.
Although the comprehensive understanding of such methods has advanced today, at the time, theseamless combination of the two techniques was met with astonishment. These achievements have earned
him numerous awards, including the Guy Medal in Silver from the Royal Statistical Society. In recentyears, he has also been actively advancing research on generative models and optimal transport, yielding
important results.
In the field of education, Professor Doucet is highly regarded internationally. Through lectures atnumerous universities around the world and collaborative work with young researchers, he is activelyinvolved in educating the next generation of researchers. Many of the doctoral students he has supervised
have succeeded in both industry and academia, significantly influenced by his mentorship.
Professor Doucet has also served as a professor at ISM in Tokyo. He frequently visits Japan, delivering
keynote speeches at events such as at the 18th Spring Meeting of the Japanese Statistical Society, andactively presenting his research at numerous institutions across Japan.

CV
Name: Arnaud Doucet
Current Position: Professor of Statistics, Department of Statistics, University of Oxford,
Senior Staff Research Scientist, Google DeepMindBorn: 1970

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Education: Ph.D. from University Paris-XI (Orsay) in 1997
Professional Summary:
2001 – 2002

Assistant Professor, University of Melbourne, Australia

2002 – 2005

Assistant Professor, University of Cambridge, UK2009 – 2009

Project Professor, The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Japan

2005 – 2011

Associate Professor, University of British Columbia, Canada

2011–present

Professor of Statistics, University of Oxford, UK

2019–present Senior Staff Research Scientist, Google DeepMind (*becoming full-time sinceApril 2023)

Details of the Fifth Akaike Memorial Lecture
The Fifth Akaike Memorial Lecture will be jointly hosted by ISM and JFSSA.
Session Title:
Speaker:

The plenary session of JJSM 2024: the Akaike Memorial Lecture
Professor Arnaud Doucet, University of Oxford, UK, and Google DeepMind

Lecture Title:“Schrödinger Bridges - Computation and Applications”

Organizers:

Professor Kengo Kamatani (ISM)
Professor Yuko Araki (Tohoku University)

Moderator:

Professor Hiroshi Yadohisa (Director General, JFSSA)

Chair:
Discussants:

Professor Hiroe Tsubaki (Director-General, ISM)
Professor Christophe Andrieu (University of Bristol, UK)
Professor Sumeetpal Singh (University of Wollongong, Australia)

Time and Date:

Venue:

10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., Monday, September 2, 2024
*The entire session will be presented in English.

Kagurazaka Campus, Tokyo University of Science
1-3 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8601, Japan( https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/campus/kagurazaka.html)*The lecture will be held in a hybrid format with online and inperson participation options. Professor Doucet will speak on-site.

For more details of the lecture, please visit the official web sites of the following organizations:
ISM (https://www.ism.ac.jp/index_e.html),
JJSM 2024 (https://pub.confit.atlas.jp/en/event/jfssa2024)

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The Purpose of the Akaike Memorial Lecture Award
In 2014, ISM and JSS started discussions to launch the Akaike Memorial Lecture Award as their joint
program to commemorate the late Dr. Hirotugu Akaike’s achievements and impact in statistical science.
(*)
The awardee will deliver the lecture (hereinafter referred to as the "Akaike Memorial Lecture"). Thisaward aims to provide Japanese and other statistical scientists with opportunities to network and interact
with each other, nurture junior researchers, and advance statistical science. Since October 2023, this award
has been jointly managed by ISM and JFSSA.
Once every two years, one awardee is selected from among international researchers who have madefar-reaching and pioneering achievements similar to those of Dr. Akaike. The scope of nomination covers
pure and applied research in mathematical science, mathematical engineering, and other statistical sciences(including, for example, system control and optimization algorithms). The awardee receives an honorariumof 100,000 yen, a commemorative award plaque, and travel expenses.
As a means for researcher development, several discussants selected from among promising graduate
students and junior researchers will have an opportunity to participate in a question-and-answer session
with the awardee. Each lecture presentation and a summary of subsequent discussions will be published as
an invited article in the Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics.

(*) About the Late Dr. Hirotugu Akaike
Dr. Akaike was born in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, on November 5, 1927. After graduating from theNaval Academy of Japan, the First High School, and the Department of Mathematics, School of Science,
The University of Tokyo, he joined ISM in 1952.
In the 1960s, Dr. Akaike made pioneering contributions in the field of time-series analysis. He developed
new methodologies for spectral analysis, multivariate time-series analysis, and statistical system control,
contributing to the development of the Time Series Analysis and Control (TIMSAC) software package. In
the 1970s, he introduced the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), which led to a new paradigm of statisticalmodeling that enables estimations of the goodness of predictive fits. This approach was a radical departurefrom the statistical approaches common at the time and profoundly influenced a wide array of researchfields. In the 1980s, he developed methods that facilitate the practical application of Bayesian modeling.
His works paved a path to novel information processing analytics in the "big data" era. For his widely
acknowledged and long-lasting contributions to the statistical sciences, he received the Purple Ribbon
Medal of Honor, the Gold and Silver Star (Second Class) of the Sacred Treasure, the Kyoto Prize, andnumerous other prestigious awards.
While serving as the Director-General of ISM from 1986, he also engaged in postgraduate education
when the Graduate University for Advanced Studies known as SOKENDAI (Kanagawa, Japan) launched
the Department of Statistical Science. After his term as Director-General expired in 1994, he became
Professor Emeritus both at ISM and at the Graduate University for Advanced Studies. After Dr. Akaike
retired from full-time posts, his passion for statistical research remained insatiable and he continued towork on Bayesian and other statistical approaches. He published several journal articles analyzing therelationship between golf-swing motion parameters and driving distance as an illustrative example of4/5

mathematical modeling. From January 1989 to December 1990, he served as the 19th President of JSS.
On August 4, 2009, he passed away at the age of 81 in Ibaraki Prefecture. On November 5, 2017, acommemorative doodle was posted on the Google search screen in 16 countries and regions to celebrate"Hirotugu Akaike 90th Birthday"(source: https://www.google.com/doodles/hirotugu-akaikes-90th-birthday).
Hirotugu Akaike Memorial Website:
https://www.ism.ac.jp/akaikememorial/index_e.html-------------------------------------------URA Station, ISM
E-mail: ask-ura@ism.ac.jp
Phone: +81-50-5533-8580 (direct)

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