Sir Peter James Donnelly (born 15 May 1959) is an Australian-British

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and Professor of Statistical Science at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, and the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of Genomics PLC. He is a specialist in

applied probability Applied probability is the application of probability theory to statistical problems and other scientific and engineering domains. Scope Much research involving probability is done under the auspices of applied probability. However, while such res ...

and has made contributions to

coalescent theory Coalescent theory is a model of how alleles sampled from a population may have originated from a common ancestor. In the simplest case, coalescent theory assumes no recombination, no natural selection, and no gene flow or population structure, m ...

. 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 and Sheila Donnelly. He is the brother of Sharon Donnelly and of eminent Australian financier, funds manager and company director Melda Donnelly. He was educated at St. Joseph's Christian Brothers College, Gregory Terrace, and later at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

and at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

Professional life

When elected to a chair at

Queen Mary College, London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

in 1988 Donnelly was only 29. He held a chair at the University of Chicago (1994–96) and was head of the Department of

Statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

from 1996 to 2001. From 2007 to 2018, he was Director,

Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics Wellcome () is a supermarket chain owned by British conglomerate Jardine Matheson Holdings via its DFI Retail Group subsidiary. The Wellcome supermarket chain is one of the two largest supermarket chains in Hong Kong, the other being Parkn ...

(WTCHG) in Oxford. He is a fellow at

St Anne's College, Oxford St Anne's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 and gained full college status in 1959. Originally a women's college, it has admitted men since 1979. It has some 450 undergraduate and 200 ...

. Many leading statistical geneticists worked with Donnelly as young researchers including

David Balding David Balding is Professor of Statistical Genetics at the University of Melbourne, and Director of Melbourne Integrative GenomicsMIG, having previously been the founding senior appointment at the UCL Genetics Institute in London. He was educated ...

, Matthew Stephens and

Jonathan Pritchard Jonathan Karl Pritchard is an English-born professor of genetics at Stanford University, best known for his development of the STRUCTURE algorithm for studying population structure and his work on human genetic variation and evolution.Pritchard Lab ...

. 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 Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal ...

in criminal trials. He is noted for his collaborative work with

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize in ...

s. He has been heavily involved in a number of large scale projects, such as the International HapMap Project and the

Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (abbreviated WTCCC) is a collaboration between fifty research groups in the United Kingdom in the field of human genetics. Established in 2005, the WTCCC aims to conduct genome-wide association studies (G ...

, a genome-wide association study. In 2015, Donnelly was elected as Chairman of the Royal Society's Machine Learning Working Group

Awards and honours

Donnelly was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006 and also elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2008. Other significant awards and honours have included:Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, Academic Staff, Peter Donnelly * 1980 University Medal,

* 1980-1983

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

* 1984-1985 University of Wales Research Fellowship * 1988 Elected Ordinary Member of the

International Statistical Institute The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a professional association of statisticians. It was founded in 1885, although there had been international statistical congresses since 1853. The institute has about 4,000 elected members from gov ...

* 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 The Bernoulli Society is a professional association which aims to further the progress of probability and mathematical statistics, founded as part of the International Statistical Institute in 1975. It is named after the Bernoulli family of mathem ...

* 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 * 2022 Awarded an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Melbourne Donnelly was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the

2019 Birthday Honours The 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as ...

for services to the understanding of human genetics in disease.

References

External links

* *
Peter Donnelly: How juries are fooled by statistics (TEDGlobal 2005)

Nuffield department of Medicine-Podcast meet our researchers

BBC Inside Science program -interview
with Adam Rutherford re his work on the genetic map of the UK {{DEFAULTSORT:Donnelly, Peter Living people Academics of Queen Mary University of London Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Australian statisticians Australian emigrants to England Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) Fellows of St Anne's College, Oxford Genetic epidemiologists Australian people of Irish descent Population geneticists 1959 births Knights Bachelor

Background, family and education

Professional life

Awards and honours

See also

References

External links