Several statisticians, including a number of RSS members, were recognised in the
2022 New Year Honours list.
The Chief Medical Officer of England, Chris Whitty – who is an RSS fellow – was given a knighthood for services to public health, along with the CMO for Wales (Francis Atherton) and Scotland (Gregor Smith).
RSS fellow Veronica Bowman, a statistics and data science fellow at Dstl, was awarded an OBE for services to defence and the Covid-19 response. Another RSS fellow, Owen Abbott, who heads up census and population statistics methodology at the Office for National Statistics, was given an OBE in recognition of his work in this area.
Four other individuals from the ONS were recognised for their statistical work, either on the pandemic or on last year’s Census. OBEs were given to Alex Lambert, who led the Covid Infection Survey; Henrie Brown for her work on the Census since 1981; and Will Marks, for his analysis work with the Cabinet Office and ONS. Arron Maspero was awarded an MBE for his work on the 2021 Census field operations.
RSS Chief Executive, Stian Westlake, said: ‘So many statisticians have played a vital role during Covid-19 pandemic. We’ve been highlighting a few individuals in our ongoing Statistics Are Vital campaign, and it is great to see more honoured in 2022’s New Year Honours list. It is also fantastic to see the hard work of last year’s census recognised. I’d like to offer warmest congratulations to the recipients and a huge thank you to all statisticians and data scientists who continue to help us make sense of the numbers.’
The RSS regularly proposes nominations for civil honours for statisticians and data scientists - to find out more, read about our external honours panel.