Warren John Ewens (born 23 January 1937 in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

) is an Australian-born mathematician who has been Professor of

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

since 1997. (He also held that position 1972–1977.) He concentrates his research on the mathematical, statistical and theoretical aspects of

population genetics Population genetics is a subfield of genetics that deals with genetic differences within and between populations, and is a part of evolutionary biology. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as adaptation, speciation, and pop ...

. Ewens has worked in mathematical

computational biology Computational biology refers to the use of data analysis, mathematical modeling and computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer science, biology, and big data, the field also has fo ...

, and evolutionary population genetics. He introduced

Ewens's sampling formula In population genetics, Ewens's sampling formula, describes the probabilities associated with counts of how many different alleles are observed a given number of times in the sample. Definition Ewens's sampling formula, introduced by Warren Ewens ...

. Ewens received a B.A. (1958) and M.A. (1960) in Mathematical Statistics from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

, where he was a resident student at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

,"Salvete 1955",
The Fleur-de-Lys
', Nov. 1955, p. 14. and a Ph.D. from 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 and ...

(1963) under P. A. P. Moran. He first joined the department of biology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1972, and in 2006 was named the

Christopher H. Browne Christopher H. Browne (1946 – December 13, 2009) was a famous value investor, and longtime director at the firm Tweedy, Browne. Browne was often known as one of the best value investors ever. Biography Early life He graduated from the Univer ...

Distinguished Professor of Biology. Positions held include: *1967–1972 Foundation Chair and Professor of Mathematics at La Trobe University *1972–1977 Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania *1978–1996 Chair and Professor of Mathematics at Monash University *1997– Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania Prof. Ewens is a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

and the

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

. He is also the recipient of the Australian Statistical Society's E.J. Pitman Medal (1996), and

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Weldon Memorial Prize The Weldon Memorial Prize, also known as the Weldon Memorial Prize and Medal, is given yearly by the University of Oxford. The prize is to be awarded without regard to nationality or membership of any University to the person who, in the judgeme ...

. His teaching and mentoring at the University of Pennsylvania have also been recognized by awards. Prof. Ewens also participates in the Genomics and Computational Biology (GCB) Ph.D. program of the

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine The Perelman School of Medicine, commonly known as Penn Med, is the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1765, the Perelman School of Medicine is the oldest medi ...

. Since 2006, he has taught statistics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. In 2022, Ewens was appointed

Officer of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours for "distinguished service to biology and data science, to research, and to tertiary education".

Publications

Ewen has produced many publications; the following is a small selection: * * *'Statistical Methods in Bioinformatics: An Introduction (Statistics for Biology and Health)' *'Kingman and mathematical population genetics' in 'Probability and mathematical genetics' edited by N.H. Bingham and C.M. Goldie *'Genetics and Analysis of Quantitative Traits', ''American Journal of Human Biology'' 1999 *'On estimating P values by Monte Carlo methods' ''American Journal of Human Genetics'' 2003 *'Sam Karlin and the stochastic theory of evolutionary population genetics' ''Theoretical Population Biology'' 2009

References

External links

*
Ewens, Warren John (1937 – )
Encyclopedia of Australian Science 2010
Ewens, W. J. (Warren John)
at trove.nla.gov.au *'Pitman Medal Awarded to W. J. Ewens', ''Australian Journal of Statistics'', vol. 39, no. 1, 1997, pp. 1–4.
Ewens' page at the University of Pennsylvania
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ewens, Warren 1937 births People from Canberra Living people People educated at Trinity College (University of Melbourne) University of Pennsylvania faculty University of Pennsylvania Department of Biology faculty Mathematicians at the University of Pennsylvania Australian mathematicians Fellows of the Royal Society Officers of the Order of Australia Population geneticists Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science

Publications

See also

References

External links