Royal Statistical Society prize for UofG researcher
Published: 29 March 2023
Dr Oliver Stoner of the School of Mathematics & Statistics has been named as the recipient of an award from the Royal Statistical Society.
Dr Oliver Stoner of the School of Mathematics & Statistics has been named as the recipient of an award from the Royal Statistical Society.
The Society have chosen to honour Dr Stoner with this year’s David Cox Research Prize.
The Prize, named after former RSS president Professor Sir David Cox, is awarded to a fellow of the Society near the beginning of their research career for an outstanding published contribution to statistical theory or application.
The Society chose to recognise Dr Stoner for his work on the modelling of flawed data, including methods for dealing with under-reporting and delayed reporting issues.
His research has helped support a collaboration with the World Health Organisation on the use of dangerous, air-polluting fuels for cooking, which leads to 2.7 million preventable deaths each year. Estimates from the models developed by Dr Stoner help track access to clean cooking as part of UN Sustainable Development Goal 7, and are a key input to WHO burden of disease calculations for household air pollution.
He has also worked to develop statistical models for learning the systematic and random structures in reporting delays around infectious disease cases and deaths. These methods, which can predict current case/death counts based on incomplete data, helped inform UK Government decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Stoner said: “I’m sincerely honoured to receive the David Cox Research Prize from the Royal Statistical Society for my work.
“As a researcher I’ve always strived for high standards of statistical rigour and I’m proud of the impacts my work has had on the world. This recognition brings me fresh enthusiasm to find new ways statistical methods can support global sustainable development in the decades to come.”
Dr Stoner will be presented with his award at a ceremony during the RSS annual conference in Harrogate this September. He will also receive £2,000 from the Society.
Dr Andrew Garrett, RSS President and Chair of the Honours Committee, said: “On behalf of the Royal Statistical Society, I offer my congratulations to this year’s recipients. Their work has not only strengthened the discipline but led to greater understanding of many important issues.”
First published: 29 March 2023
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