Richard Lewis Tweedie (22 August 1947 – 7 June 2001) was an Australian statistician.
Education
After having completed his undergraduate studies and a Master of Arts at the
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...
, Tweedie moved to
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...
, where he obtained his doctorate under the supervision of
David George Kendall
David George Kendall FRS (15 January 1918 – 23 October 2007) was an English statistician and mathematician, known for his work on probability, statistical shape analysis, ley lines and queueing theory. He spent most of his academic li ...
in 1972. Additionally, in 1986 he was awarded a
Doctor of Science
Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...
degree from the ANU for his major contributions to the theory of
Markov chains on a measurable state space.
Career
Tweedie joined the company Siromath in 1981 as general manager, and became its managing director in 1983. He taught at
Bond University as Foundation Dean and Foundation Professor of Information Sciences from 1987 to 1992, after which he joined the faculty of
Colorado State University (CSU). He was chair of CSU's Department of Statistics from 1992 to 1997, and left CSU to join the faculty of the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
in 1999. When he died in 2001 of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
, he was the chair of the University of Minnesota's Division of Biostatistics.
Tobacco industry consulting
Tweedie did some work as a tobacco industry consultant during his career. This work included presenting his analysis of studies on the health effects of
passive smoking
Passive smoking is the inhalation of tobacco smoke, called secondhand smoke (SHS), or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), by persons other than the intended "active" smoker. It occurs when tobacco smoke enters an environment, causing its inhalat ...
at a 1980 meeting, to which he had been invited by the industry.
Recognition
Tweedie was elected as a
Fellow of the American Statistical Association
Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...
in 1997.
References
Further reading
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2001 deaths
1947 births
Australian statisticians
Academic staff of Bond University
Colorado State University faculty
University of Minnesota faculty
Australian National University alumni
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
People from Leeton, New South Wales
Fellows of the American Statistical Association
Mathematical statisticians
Probability theorists
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