Department of Statistics
Florence Nightingale Lecture
Florence Nightingale was a celebrated nurse who served the British Army during the Crimean War. Her ground-breaking use of data visualisation turned a spotlight on the terrible hospital sanitation, and brought the issue to the attention of the British establishment. She went on to epidemiological work in India, statistically proving the importance of sanitation to health. Her work is a testament both to the power of Statistics to change the world, and the broad range of backgrounds from which the contributors to the discipline are drawn.
The Florence Nightingale Lecture aims to celebrate that diversity by inviting a distinguished speaker to lecture on a statistical topic of their choice, one which can inspire the current generation as Nightingale herself did.
Previous Lectures
2016 The Ninth Lecture
Professor Dame Janet Thornton, European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge
Bioinformatics at the heart of biology and genomic medicine
2015 The Eighth Lecture (Relaunch of Florence Nightingale Lectures)
Professor Christl Donnelly, Imperial College, London
An epidemiologist's life on the edge (of the science-policy interface)
2008 The Seventh Lecture
Professor David Clayton, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research
Revisiting some old epidemiological debates and controversies after the "genetic revolution"
2007 The Sixth Lecture
Professor Lewis Wolpert, University College London
What determines our beliefs?
2004 Fifth Lecture
Sir David Cox FRS, Nuffield College
From Public Policy to particle Physics: Statistics in the 21st Century
2002 Fourth Lecture
Mr Peter Clark - President, Institute of Actuaries
Words and numbers - actuaries are ambidextrous
2000 Third Lecture
Professor Sir Robert May - Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government
Extinction: biodiversity challenged
1998 Second Lecture
Professor Barry Scheck, Professor of Law - Benjamin Cardozo School of Law
Scientific Evidence and Criminal Justice
1997 Inaugural Lecture
Sir Walter Bodmer - Principal Hertford College
The somatic Evolution of Cancer