The president of the Royal Statistical Society is the head of 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. ...

(RSS), elected biennially by the Fellows of the Society. (The time-period between elections has varied in the past, and in fact elections only rarely occur.). The president oversees the running of the Society and chairs its council meetings. In recent years, almost all presidents have been nominated following many years' service to the Society, although some have been nominated to mark their eminence in society generally, such as

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...

. There has only been one contested election in the Society's history; in 1977, many fellows objected to the nomination by the Council of

Campbell Adamson Sir William Owen Campbell Adamson (26 June 1922 – 21 August 2000) was a British industrialist, who was best known for his work as director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) from 1969 to 1976. He rose through the steel ind ...

because he was not a statistician, was said to have made derogatory comments about statisticians, and principally because in the previous year he had been defeated in an election to the Council of the Society, and fellows felt that he was being foisted upon the Society by the current 'establishment' in an essentially undemocratic fashion.

Henry Wynn Henry Philip Wynn (born 19 February 1945) is a British statistician who has been a President of the Royal Statistical Society. He gained a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from Oxford and a PhD in Mathematical Statistics from Imperial Colle ...

was nominated by several fellows (including

Adrian Smith Adrian Frederick "H" Smith (born 27 February 1957) is an English guitarist best known as a member of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, for whom he also writes songs and performs backing vocals both live and in the studio. Smith grew up in London ...

, himself later president, and Philip Dawid) and won the election. Despite women being elected fellows from 1858, only five have been president of the society. In 2010,

Bernard Silverman Sir Bernard Walter Silverman, (born 22 February 1952) is a British statistician and former Anglican clergyman. He was Master of St Peter's College, Oxford, from 1 October 2003 to 31 December 2009. He is a member of the Statistics Department ...

stepped down very early in his presidential term. This was due to being appointed as chief scientific advisor to the Home Office which presented a

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...

as the society sometimes issues expert statements on statistical matters in public life. In 2022 then president-elect David Firth withdrew on health grounds, prompting a further election in which Andrew Garrett, the current president, was elected.

Honorary presidents

Three Princes of Wales have been an honorary president: * 1872 - 1901

Albert Edward, Prince of Wales Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

(later Edward VII) * 1902 - 1910 George, Prince of Wales (later George V) * 1921 - 1936 Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII)

List of presidents

19th century

20th century

21st century

*2001–2003 Peter Green *2003–2005 Andrew P. Grieve *2005–2007

Tim Holt Charles John "Tim" Holt III (February 5, 1919 – February 15, 1973) was an American actor. He was a popular Western star during the 1940s and early 1950s, appearing in forty-six B westerns released by RKO Pictures. In a career spanning mo ...

*2008–2009 David Hand *2010–2010

(resigned Feb 2010; replaced ''pro tem'' by David Hand) *2011–2012

Valerie Isham Valerie Susan Isham (born 1947) is a British applied probabilist and former President of the Royal Statistical Society. Isham's research interests in include point processes, spatial processes, spatio-temporal processes and population processe ...

*2013–2014 John Pullinger *2014–2016 Peter Diggle *2017–2018 David Spiegelhalter *2019–2020 Deborah Ashby *2021–2022

Sylvia Richardson Sylvia Therese Richardson is a French/British Bayesian statistician and is currently Professor of Biostatistics and Director of the MRC Biostatistics Unit at the University of Cambridge. In 2021 she became the president of the Royal Statistical ...

*2023– Andrew Garrett

References

External links

Current president

List of presidents
{{DEFAULTSORT:Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society Royal Statistical Society