MURRAY HILL, N.J., April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs will host an event in recognition of S system inventor John Chambers, entitled "40 Years of Statistical Computing." S, a breakthrough language and system for statistical computing, began as a Bell Labs research project in 1976. Today, systems based on S, including S-Plus, from Insightful, Inc., provide the most widely used software for research in data analysis and statistics.

The one-day workshop, chaired by Diane Lambert, director of statistics and data analysis research at Bell Labs, will be held at Lucent's headquarters in Murray Hill, N.J., on April 29, and will feature talks from leaders in the field from centers such as AT&T Labs, Stanford University, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin. Topics to be covered include: the evolution of the S system, statistical modeling, and statistical computing and graphics, as well as R and other statistical systems. Bell Labs Research and Advanced Technologies President Jeff Jaffe will deliver a keynote address and Chambers, a Bell Labs researcher emeritus, will provide remarks on the history and evolution of the field of statistical computing.

"We are very proud to count John among Bell Labs researchers who have made profound contributions to the field of statistics," said Debasis Mitra, vice president of Bell Labs' Mathematics Sciences Research group. "His visionary leadership in the field of statistical computing has revolutionized a wide variety of statistical applications in science, technology, manufacturing, and business management."

Chambers joined Bell Labs in 1966 after earning a Ph.D. in statistics from Harvard University. He has spent more than 40 years conducting research in a wide variety of data computing areas at Bell Labs, publishing more than 75 papers and authoring or co-authoring seven books. In 1999, he became the only statistician to win the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Software System Award for his design of the S system, which the ACM cited as an innovation that "has forever altered the way people analyze, visualize and manipulate data." Chambers donated the proceeds from the prize to the American Statistical Association to establish an annual prize for software achievements.

In addition to S, Bell Labs has produced seminal contributions to mathematical sciences, including: information theory, error-correcting codes for communication systems, theory of complexity of algorithms, multidimensional scaling, the FFT, teletraffic theory, queuing theory, adaptive filters and statistical multiplexing of packets. Today, Bell Labs researchers continue to conduct research in new networks and services, such as IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), an industry standard way of building next-generation networks; learning based anomaly detection; data analysis tools; next generation wireless systems and Internet transport protocols; algorithms for robust network design; stability of nonlinear optical networks; optimization of supply chain networks and game-theoretic analysis of the telecommunication market.

About Bell Labs and Lucent Technologies

Bell Labs is the leading source of new communications technologies. It has generated more than 30,000 patents since 1925 and has played a pivotal role in inventing or perfecting key communications technologies, including transistors, digital networking and signal processing, lasers and fiber-optic communications systems, communications satellites, cellular telephony, electronic switching of calls, touch-tone dialing, and modems. Bell Labs scientists have received six Nobel Prizes in Physics, nine U.S. National Medals of Science and eight U.S. National Medals of Technology(R). For more information about Bell Labs, visit its Web site at http://www.bell-labs.com/.

Lucent Technologies designs and delivers the systems, services and software that drive next-generation communications networks. Backed by Bell Labs research and development, Lucent uses its strengths in mobility, optical, software, data and voice networking technologies, as well as services, to create new revenue-generating opportunities for its customers, while enabling them to quickly deploy and better manage their networks. Lucent's customer base includes communications service providers, governments and enterprises worldwide. For more information on Lucent Technologies, which has headquarters in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, visit http://www.lucent.com/.

CONTACT: Devon Prutzman, +1-908-582-7190, prutzman@lucent.com, or Peter
Benedict, +1-908-582-7710, pbenedict@lucent.com, both of Lucent Technologies

Web site: http://www.lucent.com/
http://www.bell-labs.com/

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