Statistical geneticist
Sir Peter James Donnelly
FRS
FMedSci (born 15 May 1959) is an Australian-British
mathematician and Professor of Statistical Science at the
University of Oxford , and the
CEO of
Genomics PLC . He is a specialist in
applied probability and has made contributions to
coalescent theory . His research group at Oxford has an international reputation for the development of statistical methodology to analyze genetic data.
Background, family and education
Peter James Donnelly was born and raised in Brisbane, Queensland, the son of financial adviser, economic theorist and author Austin Donnelly
[1] and Sheila Donnelly. He is the brother of Sharon Donnelly and of eminent Australian financier, funds manager and company director Melda Donnelly.
[2] He was educated at
St. Joseph's Christian Brothers College, Gregory Terrace , and later at the
University of Queensland and at
Balliol College, Oxford .
Professional life
When elected to a chair at
Queen Mary College, London in 1988 Donnelly was only 29.
[3] He held a chair at the
University of Chicago (1994–96) and was head of the Department of
Statistics at the
University of Oxford from 1996 to 2001. From 2007 to 2018, he was Director,
Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics (WTCHG) in Oxford.
[4] He is a fellow at
St Anne's College, Oxford .
Many leading statistical geneticists worked with Donnelly as young researchers including
David Balding ,
Matthew Stephens and
Jonathan Pritchard . One area in which he has a leading reputation is in the interpretation of
DNA evidence. He has acted as an
expert witness on
forensic science in criminal trials.
[5]
He is noted for his collaborative work with
biologists . He has been heavily involved in a number of large scale projects, such as the
International HapMap Project
[6] and the
Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium , a
genome-wide association study .
[7]
In 2015, Donnelly was elected as Chairman of the Royal Society's Machine Learning Working Group.
[8]
Awards and honours
Donnelly was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006
[9] and also elected as a Fellow of the
Academy of Medical Sciences in 2008.
[10]
Other significant awards and honours have included:
[11]
1980 University Medal,
University of Queensland
1980-1983
Rhodes Scholarship
1984-1985
University of Wales Research Fellowship
1988 Elected Ordinary Member of the
International Statistical Institute
1990 Special Invited Lecturer,
Institute of Mathematical Statistics
1990-1995 SERC Advanced Fellowship
1995 Elected Fellow of the
Institute of Mathematical Statistics
1999 Elected Honorary Fellow,
Institute of Actuaries
2000 Bernoulli Lecturer, 5th World Congress of the
Bernoulli Society
2001 Forum Lecturer, European Meeting of Statisticians
2002 Editor's Invited Paper, Statistical Society of Australia
2002 Mitchell Prize, of the
American Statistical Association and ISBA
2004 Guy Medal in Silver,
Royal Statistical Society
2007 Medallion Lecturer,
Institute of Mathematical Statistics .
2007 The main paper from the
Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, which Donnelly chaired, won several awards, including
The Lancet ' s Paper of the Year,
Scientific American ' s Research Leader of the Year, the Amadeus Prize, and one of Nature's Editor's Picks for 2007.
2009 Awarded the
Weldon Memorial Prize
[11]
2022 Awarded an honorary doctoral degree from the
University of Melbourne
[12]
Donnelly was
knighted in the
2019 Birthday Honours for services to the understanding of human genetics in disease.
[13]
See also
References
^ Way, Nicholas (2007),
The Sydney Morning Herald , 6 September 2007 Obituary
http://www.smh.com.au/news/obituaries/foe-to-fund-managers-and-tireless-campaigner-for-small-investors/2007/09/05/1188783315224.html
^
Bloomberg Businessweek Company Overview of Victorian Funds Management Corporation ; Retrieved 9 January 2015.
^
Peter Donnelly's CV
Archived 15 July 2008 at the
Wayback Machine
^
"History of the WTCHG — Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics" .
^ Lynch, Michael; Cole, Simon A.; McNally, Ruth; Jordan, Kathleen (2010),
Truth Machine: The Contentious History of DNA Fingerprinting , University of Chicago Press, p. 193,
ISBN
9780226498089 .
^ Secko, David (26 October 2005),
"Phase I of HapMap Complete: International consortium publishes most comprehensive catalog of human genetic variation to date" , The Scientist .
^
"List of Contributing Investigators: Membership of Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2" , Ophthalmology , retrieved 18 September 2014 .
^
Royal Society - Machine Learning Working Group .
^
Professor Donnelly elected Fellow of The Royal Society , St. Anne's College, University of Oxford, 1 June 2006
^
New Fellows elected to Academy of Medical Sciences , University of Oxford, 2 May 2008, archived from
the original on 5 May 2008 .
^
a
b Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, Academic Staff, Peter Donnelly
"CV - Oxford University Statistics" . Archived from
the original on 15 July 2008. Retrieved 10 August 2008 .
^ Somerville, Cath (1 March 2022).
"University of Melbourne confers six honorary doctorates" . University of Melbourne . Retrieved 28 February 2022 .
^
"No. 62666" .
The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 June 2019. p. B2.
External links
International National Academics Other