The International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA) was founded in 1992 to foster the study and application of Bayesian statistical methods across all scientific disciplines. From its origins as a small community of researchers who met informally at statistical conferences, ISBA has grown into a global organization with thousands of members spanning academia, government, and industry. It serves as the intellectual home for Bayesian statisticians and the primary venue for the exchange of ideas at the frontier of Bayesian theory, computation, and application.
ISBA's founding reflected a pivotal moment in the history of statistics. The MCMC revolution of the early 1990s — the Gibbs sampler, the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, and the development of BUGS software — was making Bayesian methods computationally feasible for complex, realistic models. A dedicated society was needed to bring together the growing community of Bayesian researchers and to provide institutional support for the field's rapid expansion.
Mission and Activities
ISBA's mission is to promote the development and application of Bayesian analysis and to encourage communication among researchers and practitioners. It pursues this mission through several activities.
Publications
Bayesian Analysis, ISBA's flagship journal, has been published since 2006 and is one of the leading journals in statistical methodology. It is notable for its open-access model, its emphasis on both theory and applications, and its innovative discussion article format. The journal also publishes software reviews and tutorials, reflecting the community's commitment to reproducible research. ISBA also publishes the ISBA Bulletin, a newsletter that keeps members informed of events, awards, and community news.
Conferences
The ISBA World Meeting, held every two years, is the premier international conference dedicated to Bayesian statistics. Recent meetings have been held in Edinburgh (2018), Kunming (2022), and Venice (2024). The meetings attract hundreds of participants and feature invited lectures, contributed sessions, poster presentations, and tutorials covering the full range of Bayesian methodology and applications.
ISBA's membership spans over 70 countries. The society actively supports participation from developing nations through travel grants and reduced membership fees. Regional chapters and sections — covering areas such as Bayesian computation, nonparametrics, biostatistics, environmental sciences, industrial statistics, and social sciences — provide focused communities within the broader organization.
Sections and Chapters
ISBA organizes its activities through thematic sections and regional chapters, each with its own leadership, events, and sometimes publications.
Thematic Sections
The Section on Bayesian Computation focuses on MCMC, variational methods, and probabilistic programming. The Section on Bayesian Nonparametrics covers infinite-dimensional models and their applications. The Section on Biostatistics and Pharmaceutical Statistics addresses clinical trials and drug development. Additional sections cover environmental sciences, industrial statistics, objective Bayes methodology, and Bayesian education.
Junior ISBA (j-ISBA)
Junior ISBA supports early-career Bayesian statisticians — graduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty — through mentoring programs, workshops, and the Bayesian Young Statisticians Meeting (BAYSM), a satellite conference held in conjunction with the ISBA World Meeting.
Awards and Recognition
ISBA recognizes outstanding contributions to Bayesian statistics through several prestigious awards.
Awarded for the best paper published in Bayesian Analysis in a given year. Named after Dennis Lindley, a founding figure of modern Bayesian statistics.
Recognizes an outstanding paper presented at the Valencia International Meetings on Bayesian Statistics or the ISBA World Meeting. Named after Toby Mitchell.
Awarded for a published book in statistical science. Named after Morris DeGroot.
Recognizes an outstanding doctoral dissertation in Bayesian econometrics and statistics. Named after Leonard "Jimmie" Savage, whose Foundations of Statistics provided the axiomatic basis for subjective probability.
Elected fellowship recognizing sustained and significant contributions to Bayesian statistics. Fellows are nominated and elected by existing fellows.
Historical Context
ISBA's roots trace to the Valencia International Meetings on Bayesian Statistics, organized by Jose-Miguel Bernardo beginning in 1979. These biennial meetings in Valencia, Spain, became the premier gathering for Bayesian researchers during the 1980s and early 1990s and provided the community infrastructure that eventually led to the creation of ISBA.
"The founding of ISBA marked the moment when Bayesian statistics ceased to be a dissident movement within the profession and became an established discipline with its own institutions, journals, and community of practice." — Jose-Miguel Bernardo, founding ISBA president
The society's growth mirrors the growth of Bayesian statistics itself. In 1992, Bayesian methods were used primarily by a small group of dedicated researchers. By the 2020s, Bayesian methods are mainstream in virtually every quantitative discipline — from genomics and neuroscience to economics and machine learning — and ISBA's membership reflects this breadth.
The Valencia Meetings
The Valencia Meetings, now organized jointly with ISBA, continue as one of the most prestigious events in statistics. Their distinctive format features invited discussion papers: a presenter gives a detailed talk, written discussions are prepared in advance, and a lively exchange follows. This format, unusual in statistics, fosters deep intellectual engagement and has produced some of the most influential papers in the field.
ISBA has been a leader in open-access publishing. Bayesian Analysis is fully open access, reflecting the community's belief that scientific knowledge should be freely available. The society also supports open-source software through its connections to projects like Stan, PyMC, and ArviZ, recognizing that modern Bayesian practice depends on accessible computational tools as much as on theoretical foundations.
Impact on the Profession
ISBA has played a crucial role in the professionalization and legitimization of Bayesian statistics. By providing a dedicated journal, conference series, and awards, it gave Bayesian researchers institutional visibility and credibility at a time when Bayesian methods were still viewed with suspicion by many mainstream statisticians. Today, ISBA members hold leadership positions throughout the broader statistical profession, and Bayesian methods are represented in all major statistical journals and conferences.
The society also plays an important educational role, supporting workshops, tutorials, and short courses that help researchers from other disciplines adopt Bayesian methods. The growing demand for Bayesian training — driven by the explosion of data science and the availability of powerful probabilistic programming tools — ensures that ISBA's educational mission will remain central to its activities.