Elizabeth Alison Thompson (born May 22, 1949) is a British-born American

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 ...

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 ...

. Her research concerns the use of genetic data to infer relationships between individuals and populations. She was the 2017–2018 president of the

International Biometric Society The International Biometric Society (IBS) is an international professional and academic society promoting the development and application of statistical and mathematical theory and methods in the biosciences, including biostatistics. It sponsors t ...

Education and career

Thompson studied at

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

, earning

first-class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

in the

mathematical tripos The Mathematical Tripos is the mathematics course that is taught in the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Cambridge, Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Origin In its classical nineteenth-century form, the tripos was a di ...

in 1970 and completing a diploma in mathematical statistics in 1971. She continued at Cambridge for graduate studies, earning a Ph.D. in statistics in 1974 under the supervision of

A. W. F. Edwards Anthony William Fairbank Edwards, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 1935) is a British statistician, geneticist and evolutionary biologist. Ed ...

. After postdoctoral studies at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

she returned to Cambridge as a lecturer in mathematics and mathematical statistics and fellow of

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

. She became a fellow of Newnham in 1981. She moved to the Department of Statistics at the

in 1985, and added a joint appointment to the Department of Biostatistics in 1988. She became a U.S. citizen in 1997.

Awards and honors

Thompson received an honorary doctorate from Cambridge in 1988, and became an honorary fellow of Newnham in 2013. She became a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1998. In 2008 she joined the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

. She 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 2023. She is the

Carnegie Centenary Professor The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland is a charitable trust established by Andrew Carnegie in 1901 for the benefit of the universities of Scotland, their students and their staff. The incorporation of the Trust was by royal ch ...

for 2017 at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

Selected publications

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References

External links

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1949 births Living people American statisticians English statisticians American women statisticians Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Fellows of King's College, Cambridge Fellows of Newnham College, Cambridge Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences University of Washington faculty {{authority control