Interview with Professor Peter Schmidt
Professor Peter Schmidt shared with us his impressions about the LCSR Summer School.
The Second Summer School of the LCSR has recently finished in Zelenogorsk. Professor Peter Schmidt, a key lecturer of the School, told us about his impressions about the event in his interview.
Professor Schmidt, please, tell us about your main impressions of our School.
My strongest impression is that I have perceived the very high motivation of all the participants to learn materials, to get confronted with new approaches. It is really very impressive!
Most participants of the School are young scholars who have just started their own studies. How could you evaluatethe quality of their research projectswhich were presented at the School during the first week?
I think that the selection of the topics is very good. All the participants choose very relevant topics to investigate. Many of the students of the School also use very sophisticated methods. Concerning weaknesses I think that it is also very important to show not only what is an added value of one’s research comparing with the existing research field but really to show in a consistent way how a theoretical framework is transformed into empirical models and in which way you want and are able to answer basic research questions. They still need much training in it. Thus, despite they all have very interesting data-sets and many of them use very advanced methods the point I just mentioned has to be improved to be able to publish in good international journals.
A provocative question: what is your main teaching interest at the School?
My main motivation being on this School but also for example in Essex Summer School or Swiss Summer School is a great pleasure for me as a teacher to train and discuss withyoung scientists.It is a very selective sample. When I compare it with, say, normally courses in statistics I see that in normal courses at the university I have so-called captive audiences which are often not very motivated to learn methods. Here it is contrary, because all participants came based on their own decision. It is like paradise. This is a biggest funfor teacher to get confronted with all these questions and have intellectually inspiring discussions. I learn myself always a lot. Some cooperation also starts with younger colleagues. And it came out later that we work together and publish later interesting papers. And I know many other peoples whom I learn to know by teaching and later they did work with me and I did with them. So it is always a big chance to me to learn to know young scientists with whom I could develop some new ideas.
Could you say a few words about informal aspects of the event?
It is a beautiful surrounding. I have already been at the beach and enjoyed the sun and water. As we all worked so much maybe I did not enjoy Saint Petersburg enough. But I think that is my problem, not the problem of the Summer School. And onemore remark. In principle, I think that it could make sense to separate this summer school in two parts, where one part is a teaching of new statistical methods when students have a theoretical session and then practical trainings in applying their skills to their own datasets. And the other type of school deals with presentations of research projects and revising papers for publications in peer-review journals. Both of two enterprises need a lot of time so it may be more convenient to do it in twoseparate ways.
Thank you very much for your answers, Professor Schmidt!
by Boris Sokolov