This series of webinars, a collaboration between the Early Career & Student Statisticians Network (ECSSN) and the History Standing Committee of the Statistical Society of Australia, explores the personal journeys of senior Australian statisticians who have made a significant impact.
Through these conversations, we delve into their career paths, challenges, and achievements, offering valuable lessons and inspiration for early career and student statisticians.
Date: Tuesday 28 July 2026
Time: 2:00pm - 3:15pm (AEST)
Format: Online via Zoom. Details provided upon registration
Abstract:
The interview of Don for up to 40 minutes, will be conducted by Malcolm Hudson. There will then be a Q & A by a member of the ECSSN.
Bio: Don McNeil
Don received his secondary schooling at St Virgils College, Hobart, Tasmania. He was Dux of School and awarded first place in the University Entrance Scholarship with prizes for Physics & Chemistry. He enrolled at the University of Tasmania and received a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics. He then moved to the Australian National University where he earned a PhD in Statistics under the direction of P A P Moran.
Following an invitation from G S Watson, he joined the faculty of the Department of Statistics at Princeton University, where he was profoundly influenced by J W Tukey, particularly Tukey’s revolutionary work on Exploratory Data Analysis, and shortly thereafter published his own book of BASIC algorithms enabling statisticians and Statistics students to explore data with the new methods that Tukey had introduced. After six years, he returned to Australia early in 1976 to take up a position as Foundation Professor of Statistics in the School of Economic & Financial Studies at Macquarie University. He held this position for 25 years before ‘retiring’ in 2001. Subsequently, he helped to run a graduate program at Prince of Songkla University in Thailand where he received an Honorary DSc.
Thus, Don has never really retired: in fact, he has contributed to the book "Who Says I Am Retired" published in 2018 by the Social Security Research Centre at the University of Malaya.
His research interests include Medicine & Public Health, Environmental & Climate Science, Financial Modelling, and Data Science Analytics. He has more than 85 publications. One of the better known is Modern statistics: an introduction, published in 2012 and co-authored with Jenny Middledorp.
Why Attend?
- Learn from Experience: Don's journey offers rich insights into building a career in statistics while leading innovations in education.
- Be Inspired: Discover how one person’s passion for teaching and statistical thinking can influence thousands across disciplines and borders.
- Contribute to History: This webinar will be recorded, with a transcript prepared to support the History Standing Committee’s work in documenting the evolution of statistics education in Australia.
Who Should Attend?
- Early career statisticians
- Students aspiring to work in statistics or related fields
- Anyone interested in the history and future of statistics education
Click here to view recordings and transcripts for previous webinars in the series.
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