As part of RSS Members Week, this event will showcase the work of recipients of RSS Honours and Statistical Excellence Awards, highlighting how their contributions have influenced policy, shaped professional practice, and improved lives.
Presentation 1: Using Emergency Department (A&E) Data to Measure and Prevent Violence, by Professor Jonathan Shepherd
Professor Jonathan Shepherd from the Violence Research Group at Cardiff University will present his research into a public health and criminological innovation that identifies trends in seriuos violence and drives prevention policy. This work received the Royal Statistical Society's 2026 Award for Statistical Excellence in Trustworthiness, Quality & Value.
Up to 75% of violence resulting in emergency hospital treatment in England and Wales is not known to police. This, and statistics users' uncertainty about violence trends and the prevention responses required, prompted the nominee, in 2000, to implement and maintain violence surveillance in A&Es and a new, structured A&E network. This new A&E (NVSN) measure shows that violence causing serious injury decreased over 25 years, consistent with crime survey (CSEW) but not police data. The nominee’s 25 annual reports and their evaluations have prompted wide, consequential user attention and new prevention policy and practice.
Presentation 2: A statistician’s life on the edge (of the science-policy interface), by Professor Christl Donnelly
Professor Christl Donnelly, 2026 winner of Guy Medal Silver, will speak about her experiences providing statistical evidence to inform policy decision-making. She wil speak about a variety of challenges, including communication to non-statistical audiences about estimates, uncertainty and underlying assumptions. This talk will draw on examples from infectious disease outbreaks in human and animal populations. Professor Donelly will also talk about the importance of evidence synthesis and point towards the RSS’s Statistics Under Pressure case studies series.
Structure of event
| Time |
Session |
| 12:00 – 12:05 |
Opening of event |
| 12:05 – 12:30 |
Using Emergency Department (A&E) Data to Measure and Prevent Violence, by Professor Jonathan Shepherd |
12:30 – 12:55
|
A statistician’s life on the edge (of the science-policy interface), by Professor Christl Donnelly |
| 12:55 – 13:15 |
Q&A and closing |
Jonathan Shepherd, Violence Research Group at Cardiff University, winner of the 2026 Award for Statistical Excellence in Trustworthiness, Quality & Value
Professor Christl Donnelly, Professor of Applied Statistics at University of Oxford, winner of RSS Honour and Award Guy Medal Silver