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Ross Ihaka (below left, with Chris Triggs) received Pickering Medal for 2008 as one of the originators of R. Further coverage is given in our Newsletter Magazine.

John Darwin (1923-2008)

John Darwin, a former Government Statistician and an Honorary Life Member of the NZSA, died on October 29.

His obituary is in the Dominion Post.

John Darwin served as Secretary-Treasurer of the NZSA from 1956-8 and as President from 1961-3. He was leader of the Statistics Section of the Applied Mathematics Division of DSIR for many years. He was appointed in 1978 as Deputy Government Statistician and then in 1980 as Government Statistician, until his retirement in 1984, the culmination of a very successful career.

A fascinating biographical note on John’s career, written by Robert Davies in 1984, is available here.

John Darwin was a member of the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform that resulted in the first-past-the-post system being replaced with MMP in 1996.

Biography in the Wikipedia

Tributes to John are invited from NZSA members and the wider statistical community. They should be sent to Harold Henderson, and will be presented here.

The Academy of the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ) has recently announced the election of 10 new Fellows, including Mick Roberts (Massey University, Albany) who is well-known in the New Zealand statistical community. Keith Worsley (University of Chicago) has been elected an Honorary Fellow of the RSNZ.

The latest NZSA Newsletter for September 2008 is now available online.

The NZSA AGM was held during the NZSA 2008 Conference at University of Waikato, 1-2 September. The following steps were taken:

Sharleen Forbes received the Campbell Award and Honorary Life Membership of the NZSA;
A new Executive was elected with Jennifer Brown as the new President;
Revisions to the Constitution were approved and a Policy Document adopted;
NZSA approved in principle establishing a Joint Venture with SSAI for the non-editorial management of the ANZJS, with terms to be negotiated over the next 6-12 months.

Teachers page - the NZSA website is now hosting a page for the use of teachers of statistics at New Zealand High Schools. It contains material from the Education Day at NZSA2008.

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