Royal Statistical Society (RSS) West Medal to Danny Pfeffermann

Danny Pfeffermann has had a long career in social statistics, with particular methodological interests in time series, multilevel modelling, survey non-response and small area estimation. He has for many years held down multiple roles; he has been President of the Israeli Statistical Society and is currently the National Statistician in Israel, a Professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Professor of Social Statistics at Southampton University (UK), while continuing a role with the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US. He uses his expertise to train the next generation of official statisticians, as well as pursuing his research interests which also inform his work directing a national statistical office.

Peter Guttorp receives RSS Barnett Award

The RSS Barnett Award is awarded to IMS Fellow Peter Guttorp for his sustained and excellent contribution to the field of environmental statistics. Peter’s contributions span both advanced methodological developments and their application to a range of environmental systems, including climate change, atmospherics and geophysics. His work has influenced policy across environmental sciences, and he was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

RSS Research Prize awarded to Rajen Shah

The Research Prize is awarded to Rajen Shah, an outstanding young researcher who has developed ground-breaking methodology in diverse fields: high-dimensional inference, interaction search and goodness-of-fit tests. His work is at the frontiers of modern statistical methods and is characterized by innovative methodology, sharp analysis and practical relevance. Of specific note is Shah’s 2013 paper (co-written with Richard Samworth), “Variable selection with error control: Another look at Stability Selection,” which made substantial improvements on an earlier idea of Peter Bühlmann and Nicolai Meinshausen.