60 for the 60th! Celebrating SSA’s 60th anniversary

Australian flag fluttering in breeze

In the December 2022 issue, we marked 60 years of the Statistical Society of Australia with detailed profiles of four of our members. In parallel, we compiled a list of 60 historical and current prominent Australian statisticians, which we present to you now.

We used several criteria to identify statisticians for this list, aiming to have a range of ages, genders and locations reflected. To begin, we included the past presidents of the SSA, and the first president of the Statistical Society of New South Wales, a predecessor to the SSA. Similarly, we considered those who have served as Australian Statistician or Commonwealth Statistician (head of the Bureau of Statistics) or led one of the many statistics-related divisions of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). We also considered statisticians who were SSA Honorary Life Members, had received an SSA award, or a statistics-related medal from the Australian Academy of Science. In addition, the statisticians recognised by having an SSA lecture or prize in their name were considered, as were those who have delivered any of these lectures. Finally, to recognise rising stars in statistics, we considered those who had received fellowships in statistics from the Australian Research Council. Our preference was to include statisticians who were members of the SSA, although this was not always possible for historical figures who were statisticians prior to the existence of the SSA.

A full list of people meeting any of the above criteria would run into several hundred! For this article, we sub-selected 60 to feature, aiming to reflect the breadth and diversity of the Australian statistical community.

Our final list is shown in Table 1. It includes 43% women and features statisticians from each state of Australia. Notable people in the list include Pat Moran, Kerrie Mengersen, Helen Newton Turner and Frances Hui, who were featured in earlier profile articles in Significance, as well as those below.

Alison harcourt

Alison Harcourt is best known as the co-inventor of the branch-and-bound algorithm, which is now a widely used method for optimisation in many domains (mostly outside of statistics!). She developed this during research at the London School of Economics in the 1950s. Alison later moved to the University of Melbourne in 1963, where she worked for many decades, training multiple generations of statisticians. It is no wonder that Alison is a well-loved figure in the SSA statistical community, and was named an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2019 in recognition of her service to mathematics and statistics. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EJG PitmanE. J. G. Pitman’s career largely preceded the establishment of the SSA. Although born in Victoria, Pitman was a professor at the University of Tasmania until retiring in 1962, thus ensuring Tasmania was also represented in our list! Pitman made substantial contributions to both statistics and probability theory. Among his claims to fame, he is known for his work on sufficient statistics and the exponential family of probability distributions. As well as being active with the SSA, Pitman was a founding member of the Australian Mathematical Society. In 1978, the SSA named its most prestigious award after him, the Pitman Medal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris DrovandiMore recently, statisticians like Christopher Drovandi from Queensland are leading in Bayesian statistical methodology. He was awarded the Moran Medal in 2021 (for outstanding research up to 10 years post-PhD) and is one of very few statisticians to have received a Future Fellowship from the Australian Research Council. His research projects span several areas, including methods for complex models, computational techniques and experimental design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emi TanakaFinally, Emi Tanaka is a leader in experimental design, data visualisation, and software development in R. She also recently concluded her term as President of the Victorian Branch of the SSA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The diversity of work undertaken by Australian statisticians is impressive. We encourage you to learn more by visiting some of the links in Table 1.

Happy 60th, SSA. Here’s to many more years!

 

Table 1. 60 Australian statisticians, showcasing the breadth of the Australian statistical community to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Statistical Society of Australia.

Name

Location

Gender

URL

Adrian J. Baddeley

WA

Male

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Baddeley

Alan H. Welsh

ACT

Male

https://cbe.anu.edu.au/about/staff-directory/professor-alan-welsh

Alexandra (Sandy) Burden

NSW

Female

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-burden-2360023b/?originalSubdomain=au

Alice Richardson

ACT

Female

https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/richardson-am

Alison Harcourt

VIC

Female

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_Harcourt

Annette J. Dobson

QLD

Female

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annette_Dobson

Aurore Delaigle

VIC

Female

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurore_Delaigle

Bronywn Harch

QLD

Female

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronwyn_Harch

Charles Ernest Weatherburn

WA

Male

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ernest_Weatherburn

Christopher Charles Heyde

NSW

Male

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Heyde

Christopher Drovandi

QLD

Male

https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/c.drovandi

Clara Grazian

NSW

Female

https://www.sydney.edu.au/science/about/our-people/academic-staff/clara-grazian.html

Dennis J. Trewin

ACT

Male

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Trewin

Desmond Francis Nicholls

ACT

Male

https://cbe.anu.edu.au/alumni/alumni-hall-fame/desmond-francis-nicholls

Di Cook

VIC

Female

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianne_Cook_(statistician)

Edmund Alfred Cornish

SA

Male

https://csiropedia.csiro.au/cornish-edmund-alfred/

Edward (Ted) J. Hannan

ACT

Male

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_J._Hannan

Edwin James George (E. J. G.) Pitman

TAS

Male

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._J._G._Pitman

Elizabeth Korevaar

VIC

Female

https://www.vicbiostat.org.au/person/ms-elizabeth-korevaar

Emi Tanaka

VIC

Female

https://emitanaka.org/

Eugene Seneta

NSW

Male

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Seneta

Francis Hui

ACT

Male

https://cbe.anu.edu.au/about/staff-directory/dr-francis-hui

Geoff J. McLachlan

QLD

Male

https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/660

George Handley Knibbs

NSW

Male

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Handley_Knibbs

Helen L. MacGillivray

QLD

Female

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_MacGillivray

Helen Newton Turner

NSW

Female

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Alma_Newton_Turner

Henry Oliver Lancaster

NSW

Male

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Oliver_Lancaster

Hien Nguyen

VIC

Male

https://scholars.latrobe.edu.au/hnguyen

Ian R. Gordon

VIC

Male

https://scc.ms.unimelb.edu.au/people/ian-gordon

Janice Scealy

ACT

Female

https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/scealy-jl

Jessica Kasza

VIC

Female

https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/jessica-kasza

Jiali Wang

ACT

Female

https://maths.anu.edu.au/news-events/news/jiali-wang-set-expand-her-horizons

Joanna Wang

NSW

Female

https://www.unsw.edu.au/science/our-schools/maths/our-school/spotlight-on-our-people/spotlight-on-dr-joanna-wang

John N. Darroch

SA

Male

https://www.flinders.edu.au/people/john.darroch

John Ormerod

NSW

Male

https://www.sydney.edu.au/science/about/our-people/academic-staff/john-ormerod.html

John Robinson

NSW

Male

https://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/johnr/

Joseph (Joe) Mark Gani

ACT

Male

https://www.science.org.au/learning/general-audience/history/interviews-australian-scientists/professor-joe-gani-1924-2016

Kaye E. Basford

QLD

Female

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaye_Basford

Kerrie Mengersen

QLD

Female

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerrie_Mengersen

Laura Cartwright

NSW

Female

https://uow.academia.edu/LauraCartwright

Louise Ryan

NSW

Female

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_M._Ryan

Margarita Moreno-Betancur

VIC

Female

https://www.mcri.edu.au/researcher-details/margarita-moreno-betancur

Matt P. Wand

NSW

Male

https://profiles.uts.edu.au/Matt.Wand

Maurice H. Belz

NSW

Male

https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/belz-maurice-henry-9483

Nicholas (Nick) I. Fisher

NSW

Male

https://acems.org.au/our-people/nicholas-fisher

Noel Cressie

NSW

Male

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Cressie

Pat (P. A. P.) Moran

NSW

Male

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._A._P._Moran

Peter G. Hall

VIC

Male

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Gavin_Hall

Rachel Ying Xiang Wang

NSW

Female

https://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/ut/people?who=RYX_Wang&sms=y

Richard G. Jarrett

SA

Male

https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-jarrett-7139a714/?originalSubdomain=au

Robin (Rob) J. Hyndman

VIC

Male

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_J._Hyndman

Ronald Lindsay Sandland

NSW

Male

https://csiropedia.csiro.au/interview-with-ron-sandland/

Scott Sisson

NSW

Male

https://web.maths.unsw.edu.au/~scott/Welcome.html

Susan Wei

VIC

Female

https://www.suswei.com/

Susan Wilson

ACT

Female

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_R._Wilson

Teresa Dickinson

ACT

Female

https://www.abs.gov.au/about/our-organisation/senior-staff/census-and-data-services-group

Thais Rodrigues

NSW

Female

https://www.unsw.edu.au/science/our-schools/maths/student-life-resources/postgraduate-research/pg-student-awards

Thomas Fung

NSW

Male

https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/thomas-fung

Warren J. Ewens

ACT

Male

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Ewens

William Dunsmuir

NSW

Male

https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/emeritus-professor-william-t-m-dunsmuir