The G. S. Watson Annual Lecture, 2011
Professor Peter Hall
Title: "Contemporary Frontiers in Statistics"
Presenter: Professor Peter Hall, ARC Federation Fellow, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
Date: Tuesday, 9 August 2011, 4.30pm to 5.30pm, Room ENG211-CLT – Circular Lecture Theatre, La Trobe University, Bendigo
Abstract: The availability of powerful computing equipment has had a dramatic impact on statistical methods and thinking, changing forever the way data are analysed. New data types, larger quantities of data, and new classes of research problem are all motivating new statistical methods. We shall give examples of each of these issues, and discuss the current and future directions of frontier problems in statistics.
About the Presenter: Peter Hall was born in Sydney and obtained degrees from The University of Sydney and The Australian National University before completing a DPhil in Probability Theory at Oxford University in 1976. His subsequent research career led to a Personal Chair in Statistics at The Australian National University in 1988, and since 2006 he has been an ARC Federation Fellow and Professor of Statistics in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics of The University of Melbourne, as well as holding a fractional appointment as Distinguished Professor of Statistics at the University of California at Davis.
Professor Hall is one of the world's most prolific and highly-cited authors in probability and statistics, with more than 550 publications. His work, which has had a major impact from both a theoretical and applied point of view, has led to numerous prestigious international awards and honours. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (1987), a Fellow of the Royal Society of London (2000), has delivered a number of distinguished lectures across the world, and has held important leadership roles within the mathematical and scientific communities.