We're delighted to announce that Professor Ruth King has been appointed as programme chair for the RSS 2025 International Conference, which will take place in Edinburgh from 1–4 September 2025.
Ruth is the Thomas Bayes’ Chair of Statistics in the School of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. Originally from Pontypridd in South Wales, she graduated from the University of Bristol with a BSc Mathematics with Statistics, followed by a PhD in Statistics. Positions followed at the University of Cambridge and the University of St Andrews, before moving to her current position at the University of Edinburgh in 2015. In 2023, Ruth was appointed as the Director of the Bayes Centre, the University of Edinburgh’s Innovation Hub for Data Science and AI.
Ruth is an internationally leading researcher in the areas of statistical ecology and epidemiology, with interests including capture-recapture-type models; state-space models; individual heterogeneity; multiple systems estimation; and associated efficient computational algorithms. Ruth is an elected fellow of the Learned Society of Wales; Royal Society of Edinburgh; and Institute for Mathematical Statistics. In 2022, Ruth was awarded the RSS Barnett Award for ‘her work in statistical ecology, and in particular bringing to prominence in this field, the use of Bayesian statistics.’
Ruth commented, ‘I am absolutely delighted and honoured to be invited to be the Programme Chair for the RSS Conference 2025 in Edinburgh. It will be great for Edinburgh to be hosting this international conference, bringing together individuals to present and discuss cutting-edge statistical research from across the wide spectrum of the discipline and application areas, whilst also providing delegates an opportunity to explore the fantastic city which includes a UNESCO world-heritage site and an extinct volcano (Arthur’s Seat) amongst many other interesting and historical places of interest.”
Planning is already underway for the conference and the call for session and workshops will be issued shortly.