President's Address

The address is given by each of our presidents during their term of presidency. It provides a platform for the president to set out their vision for the Society or reflect on their presidency so far (or both). They will often talk about the role of statistics in society, the profession and the challenges facing statistics.

History

The current practice of an inaugural address began with William Newmarch at the beginning of the 1869-1870 session, but there were two previous addresses in 1851 by Lord Harrowby when he resigned and in 1853 by Lord Overstone when presenting the annual report. There is an account of President’s Addresses in Mouat's History of the RSS in the Journal for 1885.
 

President's Address

A Garrett - 26 June 2024
Download the preprint - 'The devil, the detail, and the data' (PDF)
 

Recent President's Addresses

S Richardson - 14 November 2022
Download the preprint - 'Statistics in times of increasing uncertainty' (PDF)
Presentation (PDF)

D Ashby – 26 June 2019
Download 'Pigeonholes and mustard seeds: growing capacity to use data for society' (PDF), Watch video (YouTube)

D Spiegelhalter - 28 June 2017
Download 'Trust in numbers' (PDF), Watch video (YouTube)

P Diggle - 24 June 2015
Download ‘Statistics: a data science for the 21st century’ (PDF), Watch video (YouTube)

J Pullinger - 26 June 2013
Download ‘Statistics making an impact’ (PDF), Watch video (YouTube)

V Isham - 7 December 2011
Download ‘The evolving Society: united we stand’ (PDF)