August 11, 2014

Distinguished Professor Noel Cressie Awarded the Pitman Medal

Distinguished Professor Noel Cressie was awarded the 2014 Pitman Medal at a ceremony on 10 July at the 2014 Australian Statistical Conference in Sydney.

The Pitman Medal, which is awarded annually by the Statistical Society of Australia, recognises outstanding achievements and contributions to the field of statistics.

Professor Cressie, Director of the Centre for Environmental Informatics in the National Institute for Applied Statistics Research Australia (NIASRA), is an eminent researcher with a record of developing innovative methods in statistical methodology and applied statistics who uses these methods to solve substantial scientific problems. Consequently, Professor Cressie’s work has positively impacted on a wide range of disciplines and applications, especially in the environmental sciences.

From the growth of the ozone hole over Antarctica to the dynamics of influenza epidemics in Scotland to the analysis of diverse and massive remote sensing data, Professor Cressie has developed innovative statistical methods for studying almost anything and everything.

Professor Cressie is currently involved in a number of research projects, including: the NASA OCO-2 mission, analysing the precision and accuracy of column-integrated atmospheric CO2; the development of spatio-temporal models for producing small area estimates with the US Census Bureau; and a study of the biogeochemical cycles in oceans and the dynamical sequestration of carbon in soil with the CSIRO.

Professor Cressie has received many other awards, including the highly prestigious 2009 R.A. Fisher Award Lecture, which is awarded by the international Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS). He is among the elite group of the Thomson Reuters Institute for Scientific Information’s (ISI) Highly Cited mathematical scientists.

A list of previous recipients of the Pitman Medal can be found at http://www.statsoc.org.au/awards/pitman-medal.