Editorial Messages

Just as it has been continually happening in the world of mathematical sciences, the group of mathematical scientists led by (for example) Professor Eyup Cetin and his colleagues (who are responsible for the remarkably successful journal, The European Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics ) have apparently broken the boundaries between pure and applied mathematics by establishing a new journal, the Journal of Algebraic Statistics . I am sure that both the mathematical as well as statistical communities at large will heartily welcome such an interesting and potentially useful addition to the list of broad-based journals in the mathematical sciences.I do sincerely wish the Journal of Algebraic Statistics every success in its endeavor to attract and publish high-quality papers which are aimed essentially and substantially at significantly bridging the gaps between the various areas within the disciplines of the mathematical and statistical sciences.Hari M. Srivastava, University of Victoria , Canada* * *The present moment seems a very appropriate one to launch a new journal on algebraic statistics. In fact many fields of mathematics are considering with interest concrete applications of well developed theories towards the solution of problems coming from everyday science and technology. This applies in particular to certain branches of algebraic geometry.I wish to the new journal a good success.Fabrizio Catanese, University of Bayreuth, Germany* * *Algebraic Statistics is a rapidly growing discipline, and presents many opportunities for research and applications. The newly launched Journal of Algebraic Statistics will bring together researchers working on problems in this area and as such is highly welcome.I congratulate the Editors for bringing it out and wish them and the journal success.Arjun K. Gupta, Bowling Green State University, USA* * *Many people think that Algebra and Statistics have really nothing in common, except some applications of Linear Algebra to Statistics. This is far away from the truth. A main purpose of this new journal is to uncover the numerous connections between these fields, and hence to advance both Statistics and Algebra.Many of these connections were not intended in the beginning and came as pleasant surprises. The applications go in both directions and bring new ideas and method from one area to the other.I want to congratulate the founders and Editors-in-Chief of this new journal for establishing it and for promoting the study of this fascinating interplay.Günter Pilz, Johannes Kepler University, Austria* * *Modern Algebra is central to all fields of mathematics, and impacts engineering fields such as coding theory and cryptography. Likewise, Statistics touches on all aspects of modern science. The intersection of these two fields, Algebraic Statistics, is becoming important in a number of application areas in the form of random walks on groups, random matrix theory, multivariate statistical analysis, geometric probability, and topological analysis of large data sets.Though efforts in these different areas have been published over the past half century in a variety of venues, having one place to go where readers interested in the theory and application of both Algebra and Statistics will enable significant advances by providing a hub from which connections to the broader literature can be more easily made. The Journal of Algebraic Statistics has the potential to be such a forum, and I look forward to the success of this new journal.Gregory S. Chirikjian, Johns Hopkins University, USA* * *I would like to congratulate the editorial team for the inaugural issue of the Journal of Algebraic Statistics .Algebraic Statistics is the emerging new field focused on the applications of algebraic geometry and its computational tools in the study of statistical models. Algebraic Statistics is built around the observation that many statistical models are (semi)-algebraic sets. The study of the geometry and equations of these algebraic sets can be useful for making statistical inferences, thus the areas of interest include categorical data analysis, experimental design, graphical models, maximum likelihood estimation, and Bayesian methods.Also some work shows applications of Algebraic Statistics to problems in computational biology. Nearly all statistical models for discrete random variables fall into the category above, and many models for continuous random variables can be treated this way as well. Thus, it is likely that these algebraic statistical techniques will be useful in many more areas of computational and mathematical biology such as systems biology, evolutionary biology, functional genomics, bioinformatics, and epidemiology.Algebraic Statistics is an exciting field and attracts many younger researchers. Thus I wish for theJournal of Algebraic Statistics to be very successful.Ruriko Yoshida, University of Kentucky, USA