Many congratulations to Professor Sarah Darby, who is now an elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). A professor of medical statistics at Oxford University and RSS fellow since 1976, Sarah is one of 51 eminent scientists to become FRS this year in recognition of their exceptional contributions to science.
Much of Sarah’s work is focused around the impact of ionising radiation on human health, such as demonstrating the impact of radiotherapy for breast cancer treatment on the risk of heart disease. This work has helped doctors to assess which patients should receive radiotherapy and who should avoid it altogether.
Other prominent statisticians elected FRS this year include ASA fellow Professor Robert Tibshirani of Harvard University and epidemiologists Professor Julian Peto of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Professor George Davey-Smith of the University of Bristol.
The new Fellows will be formally admitted to the Royal Society at a ceremony in July.
Congratulations are also due to another RSS fellow, Professor Yiannis Demiris of Imperial College London, who has been appointed a Chair in Emerging Technologies by the Royal Academy of Engineering. Here he will develop a research programme in personal assistive robots focusing on the development, implementation and validation of artificial intelligence (AI) systems that will enable robots to intelligently assist those who need support and adapt to meet people’s individual needs.