David Warton receives 2014 Christopher Heyde Medal

The School is thrilled to announce that Associate Professor David Warton has been awarded the 2014 Christopher Heyde Medal. This award, presented by the Australian Academy of Science, recognises distinguished research in the mathematical sciences by a researcher under the age of 40.

The award is offered in one of three fields on a rotating basis – pure mathematics; applied, computational and financial mathematics; plus the areas focused on for this year’s award: probability theory, statistical methodology and their applications.

Associate Professor Warton is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the School. His work centres on developing statistical methodology to advance ecological research.

“I’m delighted to be awarded the medal; some really outstanding statisticians have received early-career medals from the Academy so it’s humbling to join the list”, Associate Professor Warton said. 

The medal honours the contributions to mathematics by Professor Christopher Charles Heyde, who was the Foundation Dean of the School of Mathematical Sciences at the Australian National University, and Professor Emeritus of Statistics at Columbia University, New York.

Associate Professor Josef Dick was the 2012 recipient of the Christopher Heyde Medal, illustrating the strength of research within the UNSW School of Mathematics and Statistics.

Associate Professor Warton extended his gratitude to Professor William Dunsmuir for mentoring him, and for nominating him for the award along with Professor Matt Wand, previously a professor in the School and now Distinguished Professor at UTS.

He also cited the support of several others. “Research is a team effort so a huge thanks to the network of collaborators, students and postdocs who have given me a leg-up over the years”, Associate Professor Warton said.

It has been a busy and rewarding couple of years for Associate Professor Warton. He was one of the chief organisers of the successful Eco-Stats Symposium and the corresponding “Can Maths Save the Planet?” forum at UNSW last July.

Last year he was recognised as ‘Postdoc Supervisor of the Year’ within the UNSW Faculty of Science.

He has also been working with Australian Museum collaborators on an ARC Linkage Grant to develop innovative approaches to identifying regional responses of biodiversity to climate change.

Associate Professor Warton’s Christopher Heyde Medal will be presented at the Academy’s annual conference in Canberra in May.

We warmly congratulate Associate Professor Warton on his award.

Photos: Taken at "Science at the Shine Dome" in Canberra, where David was presented with his award in May 2014.