The Royal Statistical Society's Professional Affairs Committee (PAC) is changing its chair and some of its committee members for 2019. PAC oversees the Society's work for professionally qualified fellows and those seeking professionally qualified status. Amongst its duties, it is responsible for: establishing and maintaining standards and criteria for education, professional training and experience, including accreditation of university courses and the Society's professional examinations; assessing applications for CStat, CSci and GradStat status; and overseeing the revalidation process for CStats and CSci’s.
Vice president nomination for 2019
At the end of 2018, Paul Baxter will stand down from his role as vice president for professional affairs at the Royal Statistical Society. John MacInnes, a current member of the Professional Affairs Committee, will take on this role for one year, from January to December 2019, giving the RSS time to fill the role for 2020.
John MacInnes is associate dean (quantitative methods) and professor of sociology at the University of Edinburgh, a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a chartered statistician. He is a member of the British Academy’s High-Level Strategy group on Quantitative Skills, the advisory panel for Maths in Education and Industry and the Data Skills Taskforce. From 2009 to 2014 he was the strategic advisor to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) on quantitative methods training, issuing two reports that eventually led to the Q-Step programme. Since 2015 he has been strategic advisor on quantitative skills to the British Academy.
Much of John’s current work focuses on statistical literacy and the promotion of quantitative methods within the social sciences. His own research focuses on population ageing and the measurement of age structures of populations. He has held research grants from the European Commission, ESRC, British Academy, Leverhulme trust and British, Spanish and Catalan government departments; he is a member of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods and sits on the scientific advisory board for the Nordforsk Nordic Programme on Health and Welfare. He has published around 100 journal articles, book chapters and monographs.
Professional Affairs Committee nominations for 2019
The professionally qualified fellows serving in the current session are:
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Mr Paul Baxter (Chair)
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Mr John Bates
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Mrs Susan Cosgrove
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Ms Alison Cousley
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Dr Robert Cuffe
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Dr Alexa Laurence
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Dr Trevor Lewis
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Ms Sarah Seaton
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Dr Ben Styles
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Ms Gemma Hodgson
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Professor John MacInnes
PAC wishes to put forward two nominees to join the committee in 2019 (to replace Robert Cuffe and Trevor Lewis, who will step down at the end of 2018). The nominations are submitted for approval by Council as follows:
Claire Bhogal MSc CStat
Claire is an R&D director at Abbott Diabetes Care. After achieving a first class degree in Mathematics from the University of Durham, she completed an Msc in Statistics at the University of Sheffield before joining Abbott Diabetes Care as a statistician after completing her degree. During her career, Claire has led statistics teams both in the UK and the US offices of Abbott Diabetes Care. She has managed clinical data management teams and led analyses of all phases of clinical trials. Her experience also includes manufacturing and medical device product design, design of experiments and quality control. Claire currently leads the UK R&D team which includes statisticians, scientists and engineers. She provides statistical consultancy across the business supporting both research and development and operations. She has organised statistical training courses for engineers and scientists and promotes the practical application of statistical techniques across the business. Claire has been a volunteer in the RSS mentoring scheme for two years. She is a STEM ambassador and supports local schools with talks and workshops on the everyday relevance of mathematics and statistics for young people.
Rachel Hilliam PhD CStat
Rachel is currently director of teaching for mathematics and statistics at the Open University, but will be moving to the Department of Statistics at The University of Warwick in August 2018. Prior to that she spent 2003-2011 outside academia as the medical statistician for Derby Hospitals NHS Trust Open University, having previously worked Birmingham University and De Montfort University. She holds a senior fellowship of the HEA and is visiting fellow in medical statistics at Derby University. Her research includes various aspects of medical statistics and scholarship into teaching of mathematics and statistics to university students.
The Professional Affairs Committee has a further nominee to put forward - details to be announced shortly.