The Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) offers several awards to its members, honouring their contributions to the statistical community:

Pitman Medal

A gold medal, the Pitman Medal (named after E. J. G. Pitman), is awarded at most once annually, in recognition of outstanding achievement in, and contribution to, the discipline of Statistics. A list of Pitman Medal recipients is here.

Honorary Life Membership

The honorary life membership honours outstanding contribution to the profession and the Society. The names of Honorary Life Membership recipients are available here.

Society Service Award 

A Society Service Award may be awarded to a Society member in recognition of sustained and significant service to the Society. A list of Society Award recipients is available here.

E J G Pitman Young Statisticians Prize

The E J G Pitman Young Statisticians Prize is awarded for the most outstanding talk by a “young statistician” at an Australian Statistical Conference. To see a list of E J G Pitman Young Statisticians Prize recipients, please click here.

Louise Ryan Award

In alternate years the Louise Ryan Award is awarded for the best presentation at a Young Statisticians Conference. A list of recipients of this award is available here.

Betty Allan Travel Award

The Betty Allan Travel Award is awarded once a year to a student member attending an overseas conference. Find out how you can apply for this grant here.

Golden Jubilee Travel Award

The Golden Jubilee Travel Award provides overseas travel funds of up to $1,000 annually to one student member of the Society, who can prove consecutive SSA membership for a minimum of two years. View the details here.

Top-up scholarships

In 2021 the SSA introduced Top-up scholarships, with up to four annual top-up scholarships of $2,500 each to PhD or Masters students in Australia who are current members of the society. These are for students working on a statistical project who aim to build their career in statistics. Learn more.

Bill Venables Award

The Bill Venables Award for new developers of open source software for data analytics, sponsored by the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDT), was introduced on 2022 to encourage new open source software development from the Australian community with a view to support efforts to develop and share data science and statistics methodology. Learn more.

For some of these awards a dedicated Awards Committee, chaired by the President of the Society, makes recommendations to the Society’s Central Council as to appropriate Award recipients. Pitman Medals and Honorary Life Memberships are usually announced at the Society’s Conference. Members of the Society are encouraged to propose suitable recipients of the Pitman Medal, Honorary Life Membership or a Society Service Award. Suggestions, with brief supporting information, should be emailed to the Society’s President (president@statsoc.org.au), as Chair of the Awards Committee.

The Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) is also consulted about medals of the Australian Academy of Science – the Moran Medal and the Hannan Medal. Both these medals honour Australian statisticians who made outstanding contributions to the discipline, the profession and the Society.