Firth Named Next RSS President

In the UK, Professor David Firth has been confirmed as the next President of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), once Professor Sylvia Richardson's term of office comes to a close at the end of next year. Former presidents include Harold Wilson, Stella Cunliffe and William Beveridge.

Founded in 1834, the RSS is the learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics, data and evidence for the public good. Professor Firth was chosen as the next President from a list of nominees put forward by RSS fellows to the society's President Nominating Committee. He is a British statistician who works on general theory and methods for research in broad areas of science, social science and public life, and his research has included topics ranging from animal behaviour to football leagues. Currently, he is an Emeritus Professor of Statistics at the University of Warwick, where he has worked since 2003, before which, he was Professor of Social Statistics at Oxford, and he worked at the University of Southampton and the University of Texas at Austin.

In 2008, Professor Firth was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy, and in 2012, he was awarded the Guy Medal in Silver by the RSS, for outstanding published research. His work on exit-polling and election-night forecasting at UK general elections was cited, as well as his contributions to statistical theory, methodology and computing.

Professor Richardson, comments: 'David Firth is a superb choice for the next President of the Royal Statistical Society. His contributions to social statistics have been outstanding and he has played an active role in the RSS over the years. I know that his leadership will drive forward the society's aim of putting data at the heart of understanding and decision-making.'

Web site: www.rss.org.uk .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.