Distinguished Professor Paul Fearnhead in the School of Mathematical Sciences has been elected as a Fellow of the International Society of Bayesian Analysis. It is a major international honour for those working in this area of Mathematical and Statistical research as only a small number of people worldwide are chosen to take on this fellowship. The awarding of a Fellowship is made by eight existing fellows on a bi-annual basis. It recognises those who have made an outstanding contribution to an aspect of statistical work from publication, teaching or service.

Paul is a prolific author in the area of Bayesian statistics and a contributor to some of the most prestigious machine learning conferences and statistical journals. He has given exceptional service to the UK statistics community by leading significant community-wide research projects in Bayesian methods. He has also led on three important grants at Lancaster University since 2013 and has recently been awarded the Prob_AI Hub which had its launch in April. His position on the UK's Research Excellence Framework panel for the mathematical sciences in both 2014 and 2021 ensured that mathematical statistics generally, and especially Bayesian statistics, has been properly recognised by the wider mathematical sciences community.

Paul is additionally the editor of the journal Biometrika, focusing on theoretical statistics. He has been in this role since 2018 and is only the tenth editor since the journal was established in 1901. This is an important statistical journal and Paul has done much to diversify the types of papers published as well as improving the journal’s reputation.

In developing the Bayesian statistical community, Paul has led from the front and contributed significantly to developing the next generation of computational Bayesian statisticians. A large proportion of his articles are co-authored with junior researchers, including his PhD students and Postdoctoral Researchers. He has supervised 24 PhD students to complete their studies and move onto various roles in academia and industry. He has also supported the training of approximately 100 students in the University's Centre for Doctoral Training in Statistics and Operational Research with Industry, as a management committee member.

Professor Gordon Blower, Head of the School of Mathematical Sciences said: “International organizations such as ISBA are fundamentally important for creating and disseminating research. We congratulate Paul Fearnhead on joining the team of ISBA fellows. His individual research success and sustained record of service to the discipline make him well suited to this role.”