SCIENCE AT THE SHINE DOME canberra 2 - 4 may 2007
New Fellows Seminar
Wednesday, 2 May 2007
Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture
Professor Peter Hall
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne
Peter Hall is a leading international researcher in theoretical and applied statistics and
probability theory. He has made substantial contributions to nonparametric statistics over
a 25-year period. Peter has had a massive influence on the development and assessment
of the bootstrap method. He has made very important contributions to smoothing
methods in statistics, and has introduced practical smoothing parameter-selection
methods in a variety of settings. He also developed novel theoretical arguments to explain
why some approaches are more variable, or more biased, than others. Peter’s research on
fractal-based statistical methods for quantifying surface roughness has also been groundbreaking.
What excites statisticians today?
The lecture described the motivations and directions of statistical science today, noting the many changes that have been wrought in the last 20 years by new technologies for computing and for acquiring data. Modern approaches to statistical analysis were illustrated by discussing methods that are motivated by new research problems in science and engineering.
