The Southern California Chapter of the American Statistical Association presents the 29th Annual Workshop in Applied Statistics. Dr. Carter Butts, Professor of Sociology at UCI, will speak on “Social Networks.” The event will take place on Friday, April 30, 2010, at the RAND Corporation. The abstract of the talk and the biography of the presenter follow.

The registration fees for the event this year are $80 (SCASA members), $95 (non-members), and $35 (students). For SCASA membership application form go to membership

for the Applied Statistics Workshop registration form go to registration

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ABSTRACT

The social sciences have served as fertile ground for the advancement of statistical theory and practice, owing both to the complexity of the problems posed and the need to wring as much information as possible from limited data. These challenges are perhaps nowhere better exemplified than in the field of social networks, where the focus of interest is on systems which components are both heterogeneous and mutually dependent. In this talk I will provide an overview of some current approaches to the statistical modeling of social networks, along with some perspective on what these models are intended to accomplish, and some lessons from the history of their development. I will also identify some important limitations to our current understanding in this area, and sketch some potentially fruitful avenues for further investigation.

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BIOGRAPHY

Carter T. Butts is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Butts obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, and his B.S. from Duke University. Dr. Butts' research involves the application of mathematical and computational techniques to theoretical and methodological problems within the areas of social network analysis, mathematical sociology, quantitative methodology, and human judgment and decision making. He is also the author of several software packages for the analysis of relational data. Currently, his work focuses on: the structure of spatially embedded large-scale interpersonal networks; models for informant accuracy, network inference, and graph comparison; representation and modeling of intertemporal relational data; and models for human behavior in disrupted settings. Dr. Butts serves as an area editor for the journal of Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, and sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Mathematical Sociology and Sociological Methodology. He also holds several paper awards from the American Sociological Association, and is a recipient of the Linton C. Freeman Award from the International Network for Social Network Analysis.

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