Professor Chris Heyde

Family and friends of Professor Chris Heyde have established a scholarship in his memory...

19 June 2008

Family and friends of Professor Chris Heyde have established a scholarship to encourage postgraduate studies in the research areas of Probability and Statistics. The scholarship is to be offered annually by the Mathematical Sciences Institute.

Professor Chris Heyde (1939-2008) was the mentor and adviser to a generation of young researchers. He contributed substantially to many areas of Probability and Statistics, while also serving his profession internationally.

Professor Heyde graduated from the University of Sydney with a First Class Honours Degree and the University Medal in Mathematical Statistics in 1961. He gained a PhD from the Department of Statistics in the Institute of Advanced Studies at The Australian National University in 1965 and worked briefly at Michigan State University, the University of Sheffield and the University of Melbourne, before returning to ANU in 1968 to undertake a Readership in the Department of Statistics.

In 1975 Professor Heyde joined the CSIRO Division of Mathematics and Statistics and became Assistant Chief. In 1983 he was appointed Professor and Chairman of the Department of Statistics at the University of Melbourne only to return to ANU in 1986 as Professor and Head of the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Department of Statistics. He was also a Professor in the Department of Statistics at Columbia University, New York.

Among his numerous awards were Fellowship of both the Australian Academy of Science and the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, as well as Membership of the Order of Australia.

» more news