Anthony Christopher Davison (born 28 February 1958) is a British mathematical statistician and educator. He made seminal contributions to

extreme value theory Extreme value theory or extreme value analysis (EVA) is the study of extremes in statistical distributions. It is widely used in many disciplines, such as structural engineering, finance, economics, earth sciences, traffic prediction, and Engin ...

, likelihood inference and

environmental statistics Environment statistics is the application of statistical methods to environmental science. It covers procedures for dealing with questions concerning the natural environment in its undisturbed state, the interaction of humanity with the environmen ...

Education and career

Davison was born in London. He attended the

Warwick School Warwick School is a British Public school (United Kingdom), public school (independent school (UK), independent boarding school, boarding and Day school, day school) for boys, in the market town of Warwick, in Warwickshire, England. Known as ...

, followed by the St. John's College, University of Oxford, where he obtained a B.A. in mathematics in 1980. He then studied at the

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

and obtained a MSc in statistics in 1981 with a project supervised by Martin Beale. He went on the obtain a PhD in statistics in 1984 at the

under the supervision of environmental scientist

Helen ApSimon Helen Mary ApSimon, (born 28 April 1942) is an English air pollution scientist and academic. She is a Professor of Air pollution Studies at Imperial College London. Her research includes the impact of acid rain, nuclear accidents and fine part ...

and statistician Richard L. Smith. Between 1984 and 1986, Davison was an assistant professor at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

in the United States. He was a lecturer at the Department of Mathematics at the Imperial College London from 1986 to 1989, and a university lecturer 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 ...

from 1989 to 1996. Davison joined

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (, EPFL) is a public university, public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 1969 with the mission to "train talented engineers in Switzerland". Like its sister institution E ...

(EPFL) in Switzerland in 1996 as a professor of statistics. He became the chair of the statistics department. In 2021, Davison,

Holger Rootzén Holger Rootzén (born 25 March 1945) is a Swedish mathematical statistician. He is Professor in Mathematical Statistics at the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Chalmers University of Technology since 1993. Education and career Rootzén ob ...

and other published work using the longevity data and

to predict the age limit of humans.

Honours and awards

Davison was awarded the

Guy Medal The Guy Medals are awarded by the Royal Statistical Society in three categories; Gold, Silver and Bronze. The Silver and Bronze medals are awarded annually. The Gold Medal was awarded every three years between 1987 and 2011, but is awarded bienni ...

in Silver 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. ...

in 2015. He gave the Medallion lecture of the

Institute of Mathematical Statistics The Institute of Mathematical Statistics is an international professional and scholarly society devoted to the development, dissemination, and application of statistics and probability. The Institute currently has about 4,000 members in all parts ...

in 2018. He is a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The designation of ASA Fellow has been a sign ...

, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and the International Statistical Institute.

Bibliography

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Davison, Anthony C. 1958 births People educated at Warwick School People from London Alumni of the University of Oxford Alumni of Imperial College London University of Texas at Austin faculty Academics of the University of Oxford Academic staff of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Academics of Imperial College London British mathematical statisticians Living people Statistics educators Elected Members of the International Statistical Institute Environmental statisticians Spatial statisticians