Imperial Professor elected President of Royal Statistical Society

Head of Statistics to take up prestigious role next year – News – 13 October 2006

By Danielle Reeves
13 October 2006

This position, possibly the most prestigious role in UK Statistics, sees Professor Hand taking up office at the head of one of the premier statistical societies in the world, with a high international reputation. Founded in 1834, it is both a learned and a professional society, with some 6500 members based in the United Kingdom and overseas.

Professor Hand came to Imperial in 1999 and became head of statistics that same year. He is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and a Fellow of the British Academy – the UK's national academy for the social sciences and humanities, playing the corresponding role in those disciplines to the role the Royal Society plays in the natural sciences.

We asked Professor Hand what his election as President means to him.

How do you feel about being elected President of the Royal Statistical Society and what do you hope to bring to the role?

"It is a tremendous honour and a great responsibility. I hope to bring a breadth to the role. I am perhaps a little unusual in that, although I am an academic I have strong links both to industry and government. I am on the statistical advisory boards of GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, on the Methodology Advisory Committee of the Office for National Statistics, and regularly advise banks and other financial bodies.

"Here perhaps is the most important point. There is a huge misunderstanding of the nature of modern statistics. Modern statistics is about analyzing data using highly sophisticated software tools, seeking structures, patterns, and relationships. It is the most exciting of disciplines since it represents the modern face of exploration and discovery. No modern science can progress without using statistics."

Why is the work of the Royal Statistical Society important and what will your time as President involve?

"Statistics is perhaps a unique discipline, because of the breadth of its impact on our lives and world. It is a central plank in scientific understanding, since data, evidence, and their interpretation drive science and engineering. It is the key to government: how many other disciplines have their own government office, like the Office for National Statistics? It is central to commerce and industry: without careful monitoring and analysis of data, effective management is impossible. For reasons such as these, the Royal Statistical Society plays a key role in the life of the UK – even though its hand is perhaps seldom visible. Indeed, the public may be aware of it only when it provides informed comments on issues of national importance – on such things as the Sally Clark case, the Northwick Park monoclonal antibody clinical trial, and the death rate in Iraq.

"The Royal Statistical Society fills the dual roles of learned society and professional body. It has a very full programme of scientific meetings, almost daily, around the country, and it also maintains a system of professional qualifications, overseeing the standards of the profession."

What are your research interests and how will they tie–in with your role as President?

"I have applied research interests in the banking and medical sectors, and methodological interests at the interface between statistics and computing, as well as interests in the foundations of statistics. I hope that my interests and experience will enable me to promote the discipline of statistics and raise awareness of its importance and relevance."

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