Paula Ruth Williamson is a British medical statistician who specialises in medical statistics and the use of methodology within the field, particularly clinical trials methodology. A graduate from the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

, she originally worked as a senior statistician in healthcare before moving to 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 ...

, where she became Professor of Medical Statistics and served as head of the Department of Biostatistics from 2002 until 2018. She was elected

Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) is an award for medical scientists who are judged by the UK Academy of Medical Sciences for the "excellence of their science, their contribution to medicine and society and the range of the ...

in 2018.

Biography

Paula Ruth Williamson was educated at the

, where she got her Bachelor of Science degree with special honours in Probability and Statistics and eventually her

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

in Probability and Statistics. Her doctoral dissertation was titled ''Prognostic prediction within Cox's proportional hazards regression model''. She worked abroad as a senior research assistant at the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research in Australia from 1990 until 1991, and having worked as a statistical tutor while studying for her PhD in Sheffield, later continued her tutor work abroad at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

's Department of Mathematical Statistics in 1990. She worked as a senior statistician at the Yorkshire Clinical Trials and Research Unit (1992-1994) and the Central Manchester Healthcare Trust Department of

Medical Genetics Medical genetics is the branch of medicine that involves the diagnosis and management of hereditary disorders. Medical genetics differs from human genetics in that human genetics is a field of scientific research that may or may not apply to me ...

(1994-1996). She also worked as a geographer, during which she had some experience in statistics; she recalled this during a November 1999 meeting organised by 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. ...

's Merseyside Local Group. In 1996, Williamson moved to the

Department of Mathematical Sciences and started as a lecturer, before being promoted to senior lecturer in 2000 and reader at the Centre for Medical Statistics and Health Evaluation in 2002. In 2005, she was promoted to professor at the Department of Biostatistics, where she served as head from 2002 to 2018. She later moved to the University's Institute of

Population Health Population health has been defined as "the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group". It is an approach to health that aims to improve the health of an entire human population. It ha ...

and became Professor of Medical Statistics. She has also held several positions in government institutions, including chair of the Medical Research Council's Network of Hubs for Trials Methodology Research (2008-2018) and

National Institute for Health and Care Research The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the British government's major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research. With a budget of over £1.2 billion in 2020–21, its mission is to "impr ...

Senior Investigator. In 2021, she was elected to the Council of the

Academy of Medical Sciences The Academy of Medical Sciences is an organisation established in the UK in 1998. It is one of the four UK National Academy, National Academies, the others being the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society. Its ...

. As an academic, Williamson specialises in medical statistics and the use of methodology within the field, particularly clinical trials methodology. In 2017, she was the speaker for the 26th Bradford Hill Memorial Lecture, "Improving health by improving trials: from outcomes to recruitment and back again". She was elected

in 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williamson, Paula Living people English statisticians British biostatisticians Women biostatisticians 21st-century English mathematicians 21st-century British women mathematicians English medical researchers British women medical researchers Alumni of the University of Sheffield Academics of the University of Liverpool Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) Year of birth missing (living people)