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New Zealand Statistical Association Newsletter 70

September 2009

NZSA Campbell Award - David Vere-Jones
Honorary Life Membership - Robert Davies
Fellow of the American Statistical Association - Chris Wild
National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards - Rachel Fewster
NZIER Economist of the Year - Brian Easton
Marsden Fund 2009
Royal Society of New Zealand
Campbell Estate Fund
NZSA Campbell Award Criteria

David Vere-Jones receives NZSA Campbell Award 

Emeritus Professor David Vere-Jones received the NZSA Campbell Award for 2009. The award was presented at the NZSA Conference dinner at the Skyline, and was given in recognition for his contributions to the statistical sciences, both here in New Zealand and internationally.

Professor David Vere-Jones and NZSA President Jennifer Brown

David is a former president of the NZ Statistical Association and founding president of the NZ Mathematical Society. In 1982 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Not long after his election he was appointed to the Council of the Royal Society of NZ, and was instrumental in forming the Society’s Education Committee which he chaired from 1987-90. This committee became involved in a variety of projects, including promoting school-industry links, commentaries on syllabus reforms and other proposed education changes. His 1987 Royal Society Report with Megan Clark continues to be influential.

David has an international reputation in statistics. He received the Rutherford Medal, New Zealand’s top science award, in 1999 for “outstanding and fundamental contributions to research and education in probability, statistics and the mathematical sciences, and for services to the statistical and mathematical communities, both within New Zealand and internationally”.
(See http://nzsa.rsnz.org/newsletter/ News001.pdf P6).

David played a leading role in setting up a series of Statistical Seismology workshops, with the first in China (hosted by the China State Seismological Bureau) and the second timed to coincide with his Festschrift on the occasion of his 65th birthday in 2001 (see http://nzsa.rsnz.org/newsletter/News012.pdf P4). These workshops continue to be held every year or so, and have helped the formation of Statistical Seismology as a sub-discipline in its own right. For further information see www.ism.ac.jp/~ogata/Ssg/ statsei_indexE.html and David’s Festschrift article Vere-Jones, D. (2001) The marriage of statistics and seismology. J. Appl. Prob. 38A, 1-5. Information on David’s Festschrift volume and path-breaking point process reference texts (with Daryl Daley) can be found at www.statsresearch.co.nz/ events.htm.

David was one of three founding directors of Statistics Research Associates Ltd (www.statsresearch.co.nz). Under its auspices, David led a number of successful research projects on earthquake risk modelling with funding from Marsden (a number of grants), IGNS (an ongoing involvement through sub-contracts) and the NZ Earthquake Commission. He also has been Director of a research programme funded by the NZIMA on Hidden Markov Models and Complex Systems.

He continues to be well-connected internationally and enjoys strong research collaborations with colleagues in Japan and China in particular. In 2005 David was a joint author and reviewer for the SSAI sponsored review “Statistics at Australian Universities” with Adrian Smith (Queen Mary College, London) and Ian James (Murdoch University, Western Australia). This review has been influential in both Australia and New Zealand.

His personal contributions to statistics include mentoring many students and bringing many eminent statisticians to New Zealand. He has also made a fundamental contribution to statistical education in New Zealand, which is now regarded as world-leading.

Many of the participants at the conference spoke of David, and of his warmth, and enthusiasm for statistics. The words “It is because of David I became a statistician” were said by many of his former students.

Congratulations David, and thank you for all you have done for statistics, both nationally and internationally.

Roger Littlejohn
Jennifer Brown
Peter Thomson

Honorary Life Membership awarded to Robert Davies

Robert Davies was elected to Honorary Life Membership of the NZSA at the AGM, and was presented with an award at the conference dinner. Robert was President of the NZSA from 1979-1981, and head of the Applied Mathematics Division of the DSIR from 1982-1992. Following several years as an independent statistical consultant, he helped set up Statistics Research Associates Ltd (SRA) in 1999 and was one of its founding directors.

In addition to his contributions to NZSA and his decade with SRA, Robert’s main contributions to New Zealand statistics were mainly through his long-term involvement (almost 30 years) with the DSIR Applied Mathematics Division. He joined AMD in 1964 and became director in 1982. He was director for 10 years until the demise of AMD in 1992. AMD had a very profound and long-lasting impact on New Zealand statistics (see Stan Robert’s History of Statistics in New Zealand) and was the training ground for many of New Zealand’s leading statisticians including Peter Whittle, John Darwin, Bob Williams, David Vere-Jones and Alastair Scott to name but a few.

Robert Davies (centre), who received Honorary Life Membership, with erstwhile DSIR colleagues Tim Ball (left) and Kit Withers (right)

Robert was a student of Professor Jerzy Neyman and his thesis on Beta-optimal tests was, like his subsequent work, of extremely high quality and of lasting value. Indeed, his publication list has among the highest density of highly cited publications of any New Zealand statistician. His papers on hypothesis testing when a nuisance parameter is only present under the alternative are very highly cited in econometrics, and his work on time series inference continues to be influential. He also has strong interests in statistical computing. His computationally efficient Newmat C++ matrix library continues to attract users from a wide variety of disciplines and still performs well in international benchmark comparisons. He also has internationally recognized research expertise in random number generation and testing.

Colleagues at the conference dinner spoke very highly of Robert and especially the high quality of his statistical advice. Robert has an extraordinary breadth of statistical skills and experience and always gives thoughtful and incisive advice when asked. His contributions have been of enormous value to those privileged to work with him.

Roger Littlejohn
Jennifer Brown
Peter Thomson

Fellow of the American Statistical Association (FASA)

Prof. Chris Wild (Statistics Department, University of Auckland), who was last year elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of NZ, has now been elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (FASA). This is a rare honour. Alastair Scott and Chris Wild are the only two people based in New Zealand to be so elected.

National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards

Dr Rachel Fewster (pictured below) from the University of Auckland’s Department of Statistics was one of only 10 teachers honoured at the national Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards at Parliament.

Rachel is a senior lecturer in the Department of Statistics and has been teaching at the University for 10 years. She received the award in recognition of her innovative, enthusiastic, and highly successful teaching methods. She is widely respected by students and peers for her ability to make statistics accessible and understood by a wide range of people, using memorable real-world examples.

Rachel concentrated on Stage One statistics courses during her first two years at the University and later went on to teach Stage Two and Three papers. As part of her work she redesigned some of the courses, and they became so popular that enrolments increased more than threefold.

The Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award is a real tribute to the mentorship I’ve had from my colleagues,” she says. “The Stage One team (at the University of Auckland) won one of the first Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards in 2003, and my own prize is a very tangible example of how they have propagated their teaching approach in the next generation of lecturers.”

The Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards, established by the Government in 2001, are administered and managed by Ako Aotearoa – The National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence. They recognise and encourage excellence in tertiary teaching, and reward teaching practices that are student-focused and committed to promoting effective learning. Read the full article here.

Excerpt from University of Auckland Media Release

NZIER Economist of the Year 2009 - Brian Easton

The NZIER Economics Award for 2009 has been given to Dr Brian Easton. Brian is well-known for his frequent columns on Economics in the Listener, which he has been writing since 1977. He is a member of the NZSA, and recently co-presented two papers at the NZSA 2009 Conference, "Demographic determinants of life satisfaction" (Brian Easton and Ryan You) and "Life satisfaction and drinking: A preliminary investigation" (Brian Easton, Ryan You and Sally Casswell).

Brian Easton, Stephen Haslett and Geoff Bascand at NZSA 2009.

Marsden Fund 2009

The Marsden funding round for 2009 was announced on 8 October. Three of the projects involve members of the New Zealand statistical community, all of which are funded for three years.

• Professor Chris Wild, Professor Alastair Scott (below right) and Professor Alan Lee (below left) "Efficient analysis with biased samples" $600,000. (Photo from NZSA 2009)

• Professor Estate Khmaladze "Contiguity theory for set-parametric problems of statistics" $470,000

• Dr James Degnan "Modelling gene trees in species trees and networks" $282,000. Below, James presenting on "Bimodal distributions of coalescent times given a gene tree in a species tree" at NZSA 2009.

Royal Society of New Zealand

2009 Medals and Awards Administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand

The following suite of medals and awards is being offered in 2009 by the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Rutherford Medal - for exceptional contributions to New Zealand society and culture through activities in the broad fields of science, mathematics, social science, and technology

Pickering Medal -- to recognise excellence and innovation in the practical applications of technology

Thomson Medal - for outstanding and inspirational leadership in the management of science and outstanding contribution in the development and application of science and/or technology to wealth generation

New Zealand Science and Technology Medals -- to recognise and honour those who have made exceptional contributions to New Zealand society and culture through activities in the broad fields of science, mathematics, social science, and technology

Hector Medal - Chemical sciences

Hutton Medal - Earth sciences

R. J. Scott Medal - Electrical, electronic, information and mechanical engineering

Te Rangi Hiroa Medal - Historical approaches to societal transformation and change

Hamilton Memorial Prize for beginners in scientific or technological research in New Zealand

Hatherton Award for the best scientific paper by a PhD student at any New Zealand University in physical sciences, earth sciences and mathematical and information sciences.

The closing date for nominations for all the Medals and Awards listed above is 30 June 2009.

Electronic copies of the information and application forms are available from awards@royalsociety.org.nz; or on the Society’s website www.royalsociety.org.nz/Site/funding/MedalsAwards/Default.aspx

I look forward to receiving nominations for these prestigious medals and awards.

Judy Lyons
Administration Officer - Academy
Royal Society of New Zealand

Campbell Estate Fund

The NZSA was the recipient of a very generous donation ($48,000) from Professor Campbell’s estate.

There is roughly $1500 funding available each year for special projects that are in the realm of Professor Campbell’s interests.  Refer to nzsa.rsnz.org/funding.shtml for more details.

Applications are received twice a year (April/October) and are invited for funding for projects in 2009/10. There is no formal application process but please supply details of your project, the full project budget, the amount you are requesting, a short statement about why your project is within Professor Campbell’s interests, and your full contact details.

Please send your applications to the Secretary, Richard Penny, NZSA, PO Box 1731, Wellington.

For more details contact Roger Littlejohn or Harold Henderson.

Roger Littlejohn

NZSA Campbell Award Criteria

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