Professor Hal Stern, Chair of the Department of Statistics, University of California, Irvine, is the invited speaker for the Southern California Chapter of the American Statistical Association Annual Fall Kick-Off. Professor Stern is the author of Bayesian Data Analysis with A. Gelman, J.B. Carlin and D.B. Rubin. He has authored over thirty refereed papers in journals such as Journal of the American Statistical Association, Biometrica, Technometrics, Applied Statistics and Chance on subjects of Bayesian and Applied Statistics. Before coming to UCI he was a professor at Iowa State University and Harvard University.

This year's kick-off takes place at Claremont McKenna College, Bauer Forum, 500 East Ninth Street, Claremont, CA.