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Peter Green, Professor of Statistics at the University of Bristol, was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London on 15 May 2003. Fellows are elected for their contributions to science, both in fundamental research resulting in greater understanding, and also in leading and directing scientific and technological progress in industry and research establishments. A maximum of 42 new Fellows, who must be citizens or residents of Commonwealth countries or Ireland, may be elected annually.
The citation for Peter Green read as follows.
“Peter Green is distinguished for his wide-ranging achievements in computational statistics. For example, his pioneering geometric algorithms have been important in the analysis of point patterns in spatial statistics. His work on semi-parametric regression models has been seminal in bringing together the ideas of non-parametric regression and generalised linear models into a unified approach of wide applicability, illustrated by his own innovative applications of these and related novel approaches in fields as diverse as agricultural field experiments, reference curves for human growth, and emission tomography. Most recently his introduction and detailed development of reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo computation has had an enormous impact in the burgeoning field of computational Bayesian statistics.” Professor Peter Green, FRS
This text reproduced by kind permission of the Head of Press and PR, the Royal Society.
In the 2003 Australian New Year’s Honours, Professor Chris Heyde was awarded Membership of the Order of Australia (AM). Such awards are not lightly offered: they are intended to recognise the Member’s contribution to Australian society. Chris has undoubtedly given much to Australia: an account of his contributions (apart from his well known research) follows.
Chris was born in Sydney, Australia, on 20 April 1939, and went to school at Barker College, Hornsby, where a gifted schoolteacher sparked his interest in mathematics. After leaving school, he enrolled at the University of Sydney, graduating with a First Class Honours degree in Mathematics in 1961, and receiving the University Medal. He won a Commonwealth Postgraduate Research Scholarship to the Australian National University (ANU), and earned his PhD in statistics from Pat Moran’s department in 1965. He married Elizabeth James later that year; they have two sons, Neil and Eric. Chris’ first job was as an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University in 1964-5; in 1965 he moved to Sheffield in the UK, and later Manchester, where he headed Statistical Laboratory. He returned to the ANU in 1968 as a Reader in Ted Hannan’s Department of Statistics.
In 1975, he joined Joe Gani in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Division of Mathematics and Statistics (DMS), first as a Senior Principal Research Scientist, and then as Chief Research Scientist and Assistant Chief of the Division from 1977. He was instrumental in carrying out many of the modernising changes which enhanced the DMS’s international renown. In 1981, when Joe left DMS, Chris continued his work as Acting Chief of the Division, until his appointment to the Chair of Statistics at the University of Melbourne in 1983. He returned to the ANU in 1986 as Professor and Head of the Department of Statistics in the Institute of Advanced Studies. He served as Foundation Dean of the School of Mathematical Sciences for three years from 1989, and is currently Professor in the ANU’s Mathematical Sciences Institute (the School’s new name). Since 1993, he has also served for the first semester each year as Professor in the Department of Statistics at Columbia University, New York, where is the Director of the Columbia Center for Applied Probability.
Throughout his career, Chris has taken a serious interest in the history and development of mathematics, statistics and, more generally, science in Australia. He has written a book on Bienayme with Eugene Seneta (University of Sydney), and co-edited Statisticians of the Centuries with him. He was elected to the Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science in 1977, and has since served it in various capacities: he was a member of the Sectional Committee 1 for Mathematics 1978–82 (Chairman 1980–82), a Council Member in 1986–93, Vice-President in 1988–89 and Treasurer in 1989–93. He was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Australian Foundation for Science in 1990–92, and its Director to now.
The Australian Mathematical Society (AMS), the Statistical Society of Australia Inc (SSAI) and the International Statistical Institute (ISI) owe much to his endeavours. He served as a member of the AMS Council in 1980–83, and was Vice-President in 1981. He was Vice-President of the ISI in 1985–87 and again in 1993–95; he was also a member of the ISI’s Bernoulli Society Council in 1979–83, its President-Elect in 1983–85, and its President in 1985–87. He was a member of the SSAI’s Canberra Branch Council in 1973–83, and again in 1987–89, becoming its Branch President in 1977–79. While at the University of Melbourne, he was a member of the SSAI’s Victorian Branch Council in 1984–86, and Branch President in 1985–86. He was a member of the SSAI’s Central Council in 1973–86, and the Society’s President in 1979–81. He has been a member of the Australian Mathematics Competition Board since 1981, and of the Board of the Australian Mathematics Trust since 1992.
Chris has organised a large number of important conferences, among them the 8th Conference for Stochastic Processes and their Applications and the 4th Australian Statistical Conference in Canberra in 1978, the Bicentennial National Mathematical Sciences Congress in 1988, the Australian Academy of Science Symposium on the Role of Mathematics in Science in 1990, and the annual Applied Probability Day Conferences at Columbia University. Professor Chris Heyde, DSc, FAA, AM
Chris has also contributed a great deal of his broad editorial expertise. As Associate Editor of the Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society, he was responsible for probability and statistics submissions in 1972–74. He was Editor of the Australian Journal of Statistics in 1973–78, and Associate Editor of Annals of Probability in 1974–78, Mathematics and Operations Research in 1976–90, ISI Review in 1980–87, Advances in Applied Probability in 1982–89, and Editor-in-Chief of both these journals since 1990. He has also been an Editor of the Springer’s Probability and its Applications since 1985.
Throughout his career, Chris has altruistically devoted much of his time to his colleagues, to the various Societies to which he belongs, and more generally to the development of mathematics and statistics in Australia and internationally. I believe that it is for this continuing dedication to his ideals that he was awarded his AM. All of his colleagues congratulate him most warmly on this well merited award; they are proud to have so selfless a colleague as a friend.
— Joe Gani
(Australian National University)
This text reproduced by kind permission of the Editor of the Newsletter of the Statistical Society of Australia Inc.
The Governing Body of St Peter’s College, Oxford, has announced the election as Master, from 1 October 2003, of Professor Bernard Walter Silverman, FRS, currently the Henry Overton Wills Professor of Mathematics and Provost, Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Bristol, UK. Professor Bernard Silverman, DSc, FRS
Professor Silverman graduated from the University of Cambridge, where he obtained First Class Honours in the Mathematical Tripos and subsequently received the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Science. He has been awarded many prestigious awards and prizes, including medals of the Royal Statistical Society and the International Statistical Institute and the American Statistical Societies' Presidents' Award. He has been Head of the School of Mathematical Sciences in the University of Bath, President of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and has held numerous visiting professorships and appointments in Australia, Europe and the United States. Professor Silverman will succeed Professor John Barron, who retires in September 2003.
Professor Silverman’s main research is in mathematical statistics: he has written over one hundred articles and a number of books on modern methods of data analysis, including density estimation, non-parametric regression and functional data analysis. He has collaborated in statistical applications in many areas of science, medicine, engineering and social science, as well as providing a wide range of statistical advice to industrial and commercial companies, to government departments and inquiries, and in legal cases. His distinction was marked by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 45.
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