Paavo Sattler co-organizes IBS-DR Workshop on Multivariate and Functional Data Analysis in Biostatistics

On 8–9 September 2026, around 30 participants from several countries gathered at RWTH Aachen University for the workshop Multivariate and Functional Data Analysis in Biostatistics. The workshop was jointly organized by the IBS-DR Working Groups on Nonparametric Methods and Statistics for Stochastic Processes. Paavo Sattler, Co-Leader of the Working Group on Nonparametric Methods and Postdoc in the group of Markus Pauly organized the workshop together with Jan Feifel (Merck Healthcare KGaA), Dennis Dobler (RWTH Aachen University), and Merle Munko (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa). 

The programme featured four invited speakers: Ingrid Van Keilegom (KU Leuven), Virginie Rondeau (University of Bordeaux), Łukasz Smaga (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań), and Edgar Brunner (University Medical Center Göttingen), the latter two being long-standing research collaborators of our group. The collaboration with Łukasz Smaga was also reflected in the contributed programme, with Marléne Baumeister (TU Dortmund University) and Natalia Stefańska (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań) presenting work from the joint DFG WAEVE project, "Powerful inference for functional data in complex factorial designs." 

The workshop brought together a wide range of topics as well as participants with different scientific backgrounds, from more theoretical and methodological work to applied biostatistical research. This combination led to many points of connection and lively discussions following the talks, during the breaks, and at the conference dinner. We are particularly pleased about the many new ideas, collaborations, and projects that took shape during these two days.