Julian Besag
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Julian Ernst Besag FRS (26 March 1945 – 6 August 2010) was a British
statistician A statistician is a person who works with Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...
known chiefly for his work in
spatial statistics Spatial statistics is a field of applied statistics dealing with spatial data. It involves stochastic processes (random fields, point processes), sampling, smoothing and interpolation, regional ( areal unit) and lattice ( gridded) data, poin ...
(including its applications to
epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...
,
image analysis Image analysis or imagery analysis is the extraction of meaningful information from images; mainly from digital images by means of digital image processing techniques. Image analysis tasks can be as simple as reading barcode, bar coded tags or a ...
and
agricultural science Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. Professio ...
), and
Bayesian inference Bayesian inference ( or ) is a method of statistical inference in which Bayes' theorem is used to calculate a probability of a hypothesis, given prior evidence, and update it as more information becomes available. Fundamentally, Bayesian infer ...
(including
Markov chain Monte Carlo In statistics, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is a class of algorithms used to draw samples from a probability distribution. Given a probability distribution, one can construct a Markov chain whose elements' distribution approximates it – that ...
algorithms).


Early life and education

Besag was born in
Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood Borough of Leicestershire, England; it is the administrative centre of Charnwood Borough Council. At the United Kingdom 2021 census, the town's built-up area had a popula ...
and was educated at
Loughborough Grammar School Loughborough Grammar School is a 10–18 Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boys' school in the town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, founded in 1495 with money left in the will of Thomas Burton (merchant), Thomas Burton. To ...
. He began studying
engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
at the
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
but moved to the
University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
to study statistics, obtaining his BSc in 1968.


Career

He then spent a year as a
research assistant A research assistant (RA) is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university, research institute, or privately held organization to provide assistance in academic or private research endeavors. Research assistants work under ...
to Maurice Bartlett at the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
before obtaining a lectureship at the
University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...
. Inspired by
John Tukey John Wilder Tukey (; June 16, 1915 – July 26, 2000) was an American mathematician and statistician, best known for the development of the fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm and box plot. The Tukey range test, the Tukey lambda distributi ...
, he visited Princeton for a year. He moved to the
University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to ...
in 1975, where he became a professor in 1986. He was a visiting professor at the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
in Seattle during 1989–90 and, after a year at
Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...
, returned to Seattle long-term. He officially retired in 2007 but remained an
emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...
professor. At his death in 2010 he was also a
visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting scientist, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic fo ...
at the Universities of
Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...
and
Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
. Besag was an ISI highly cited researcher; his 1986 paper "On the Statistical Analysis of Dirty Pictures" was the most cited paper by a UK mathematical scientist in the 1980s. The
Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...
awarded him its Guy Medal in Silver in 1983 for his contributions to spatial statistics, and he was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
in 2004.


Notable contributions


Spatial statistics

For an array of random variables Yij, stochastic dependence was known to be important. Julian initially researched a model to for the correlation between Yij pairs as a function of the distance between the corresponding lattice point pairs. However, this proved to be difficult due to ambiguous conditions for self-consistency. He therefore suggested using multivariate distributions for such a variable, taking inspiration from statistical physics and unpublished work by Peter Clifford and
John Hammersley John Michael Hammersley, (21 March 1920 – 2 May 2004) was a British mathematician best known for his foundational work in the theory of self-avoiding walks and percolation theory. Early life and education Hammersley was born in Helensburgh i ...
: P Y_:(k,l)\neq(i,j)/math> He published his findings to the Royal Statistical Society in March 1974.


Death

Besag died in Bristol, 2010 following a surgery.


Notable publications

*Besag, J. (1974) "Spatial Interaction and the Statistical Analysis of Lattice Systems", ''
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...
'', 36 (2), 192–236. *Besag, J. (1975) "Statistical Analysis of Non-Lattice Data." ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series D'', 24(3), 179–195. *Besag, J. (1977) "Comments on Ripley's paper." ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B'', 39(2), 193–195 *Besag, J.E. (1986) "On the Statistical Analysis of Dirty Pictures," ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B'', 48, 259–302. *


See also

* Ripley's K and Besag's L function * Spatial point process


References


Profile: Julian Besag, FRS
'' IMS Bulletin'' Sept/Oct 2004; Vol. 33 No. 5, p13.
Prof Julian Besag
at
Debrett's People of Today Debrett's () is a British professional coaching company and publisher and authority on etiquette and behaviour, founded in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of ''The New Peerage''. The company takes its name from its founder, John ...

Julian Besag – Department of Statistics – University of Washington


Further reading

*


External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Besag, Julian Fellows of the Royal Society British statisticians 1945 births 2010 deaths Academics of Durham University Academics of Newcastle University Academics of the University of Bath Academics of the University of Bristol Academics of the University of Liverpool People from Loughborough Alumni of the University of Birmingham University of Washington faculty People educated at Loughborough Grammar School Spatial statisticians Computational statisticians