David Finney Centenary Lecture

The David Finney Centenary Lecture took place on November 30th at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences. This event was in honour of Prof. David Finney, who turned 100 on January 3rd 2017. Prof. Finney was an eminent statistician, who was the first Professor of Statistics at the University of Edinburgh and a former president of the Royal Statistical Society.

The lecturer was Professor Sheila Bird, OBE FRSE FMedSci, a former programme leader at the MRC in Cambridge. The lecture was entitled "Biostatistician behind bars: design, linkage, vigilance" and described research into drug related deaths among former prison inmates. The lecture was a fine tribute to David Finney, making significant reference to his contributions within statistics. This included a nod to his inaugural lecture as president of the RSS in the form of whisky served by a kilted highlander.

The David Finney Centenary lecture was organised by the University of Edinburgh's recently formed Centre for Statistics (CfS). The aim of the CfS is to bring together quantitative researchers from across the University to foster inter disciplinary research collaboration. The CfS will be organising an annual David Finney lecture with a distinguished lecturer. The intention is that these annual lectures will take place in May or June, with the first in June 2018.