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. The president oversees the running of the Society and chairs its council meetings. He or she also gives a ''presidential address'' at some point in their tenure, which is published in the longest running

journal 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 ...

of the society, Series A, setting out personal views on the future of discipline and the role of the society. 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 – 23 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 197 ...

. Nominations for president are received by the society's Nominating Committee. The committee recommends at least one fellow to Council who, at a meeting, agree a preferred candidate or candidates. If only one preferred candidate is selected, the Fellowship are given four weeks to offer an alternate candidate. 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 indu ...

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 was nominated by several fellows (including Adrian Smith, 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. Three of these have been in the 21st century although the proportion remains biased to men with nine male presidents since 2001. In 2010, Bernard Silverman stepped down very early in his presidential term. This was due to being appointed as chief scientific advisor to the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

which presented a

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

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 the immediate past-president, Andrew Garrett, was elected. The current president is Prof Sir John Aston.

Honorary presidents

Three

Princes of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Gwynedd who, from the late 12th century, used it (albeit inconsistent ...

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 and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until Death and state funeral of Edward VII, his death in 1910. The second child ...

(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 *2008–2009 David Hand *2010–2010 Bernard Silverman (resigned Feb 2010; replaced ''pro tem'' by David Hand) *2011–2012 Valerie Isham *2013–2014 John Pullinger *2014–2016 Peter Diggle *2017–2018

David Spiegelhalter Sir David John Spiegelhalter (born 16 August 1953) is a British statistician and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. From 2007 to 2018 he was Winton Professorship of the Public Understanding of Risk, Winton Professor of the Public Under ...

*2019–2020 Deborah Ashby *2021–2022 Sylvia Richardson *2023–2024 Andrew Garrett *2025-date John Aston

References

External links

Current president

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