The Department of Statistics is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2022 Corcoran Memorial Prize is Dr Adam Foster. Adam was supervised by Professor Yee Whye Teh and Dr Tom Rainforth and his thesis was entitled, ‘Variational, Monte Carlo and policy-Based approaches to Bayesian experimental design’.

Adam said of wining the prize,

I am truly grateful to have been awarded the Corcoran Memorial Prize. Oxford Stats holds a special place in my heart for bringing me into the world, academically speaking. I enjoyed every moment that I spent there surrounded by my incredibly fun and frighteningly intelligent peers, and by the supportive environment of the department. I thank my supervisors Tom Rainforth and Yee Whye Teh for four years of generous guidance: this is as much their award as it is mine.

The Corcoran Memorial lectures are named in memory of Stephen Corcoran who was a graduate student in the Department of Statistics until his death in 1996. Stephen's research was in the field of empirical likelihood. He made substantial progress in this work but sadly his thesis remained unfinished at the time of his death from cancer.

A family bequest has established an annual lecture in honour of Stephen in which distinguished guest lecturers are invited to deliver a lecture on important aspects of their work. In addition, the Corcoran Memorial Prize is awarded every two years to students of the Department of Statistics for outstanding graduate work. The prize winners are also invited to give a lecture.

The guest lecturer will be Professor Michael Gutmann from the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh.

The Corcoran Memorial Lecture and Prize Award will take place on Monday 29th January 2024 and more information will follow soon.