Just before Christmas, we received the news that Prof. John Aitchison had died, peacefully at home with his wife Muriel and other members of the family. John was appointed to a chair in Statistics in 1966, coinciding with the arrival in Glasgow of Prof. David Silvey and the establishment of the Department of Statistics. John was a hugely influential figure. He was ahead of his time in the development of Bayesian methods and he made pioneering contributions in many other areas. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1968. He was awarded the Guy Medal in Silver by the Royal Statistical Society in 1988. He essentially defined the field of compositional data analysis, for which he received the Krumbein Award from the International Association for Mathematical Geology in 1995.

In 1976 John was seconded to the University of Hong Kong, a post which he decided to make permanent and where he stayed until 1989. He had a very significant effect on teaching and research there and he was a founder member and President of the Hong Kong Statistical Society. In 1989 he moved to the final professional post of his career, when he became Professor and Chairman of Division of Statistics at the University of Virginia.

John was a strong, highly supportive and much appreciated influence on colleagues not only in Glasgow but around the world. He was held in great affection and will be much missed.

First published: 7 February 2017

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