D. J. Finney
David John Finney CBE FRS FRSE (3 January 1917 – 12 November 2018), was a British statistician[1][2] and Professor Emeritus of Statistics at the University of Edinburgh. He was Director of the Agricultural Research Council's Unit of Statistics from 1954 to 1984 and a former President of the Royal Statistical Society and of the Biometric Society. He was a pioneer in the development of systematic monitoring of drugs for detection of adverse reactions.[3] He turned 100 in January 2017[4][5] and died on 12 November 2018 at the age of 101 following a short illness.[6][7]
Childhood and education
Finney was born in Latchford, Cheshire, Warrington. In his interview with MacNeill, Finney describes his background: "My family were never wealthy but never in want". His paternal grandfather was a schoolmaster, and his father was an accountant in the steel industry. David was the eldest child; he had no sisters. In the Preface to his "Probit Analysis" book, Finney thanks his father Robt. G. S. Finney for assistance.
Finney was educated at the coeducational Lymm Grammar School and Manchester Grammar School, where he won a Cambridge scholarship. He read mathematics and statistics at Clare College, Cambridge from 1934 to 1938. He was awarded a postgraduate scholarship for statistical work in agriculture under Ronald Fisher at the Galton Laboratory, University College London, where he worked on statistical estimation for human genetics.
Career
He became assistant to Frank Yates at Rothamsted Experimental Station in 1939, where there was great emphasis on increasing productivity of agriculture and he was involved in the design of field experiments and the interpretation of their results. In 1945, he joined the University of Oxford as the first holder of the post of Lecturer in the Design and Analysis of Scientific Experiment. He married in 1950 and with his wife and 9-month-old daughter, left Oxford in 1952 for New Delhi where, for a year, he acted as a consultant to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation on the development of the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute in New Delhi. In 1951 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.[8] He became a Fellow of The Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1955.[9]
After returning from India, he moved to the University of Aberdeen where he became Reader in Statistics and also established a Unit of Statistics funded by the Agricultural Research Council, which was to provide a service for Scotland modelled on that provided by Rothamsted for England. The Agricultural Research Council moved the Unit of Statistics to the University of Edinburgh in 1966 and Finney, who moved to Edinburgh with it, became the first Professor of Statistics at the university and well as being the Director of the Unit of Statistics. He served as president of the Royal Statistical Society in 1973–4. He retired from his position at Edinburgh in 1984.
During the 1960s he became involved in the field of drug safety, providing important advice both to the fledgling UK system of medicines safety and to efforts by WHO to create an international system of pharmacovigilance. In 2002 he returned to contact with the Uppsala Monitoring Centre, which published an anthology of his writings about statistical methods and drug safety. He was also involved with Bill Inman in the setting-up of the Drug Safety Research Unit.[10] Finney received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1981.[11] In 1981, Finney became a founding member of the World Cultural Council.[12]
Works
- Probit Analysis, Cambridge University Press, 1947
- Statistical methods in biological assay, Hafner, 1952; Griffin, 1971, ISBN 978-0-85264-014-2
- Experimental design and its statistical basis, University of Chicago Press, 1955
- Statistics for mathematicians: an introduction, Oliver & Boyd, 1968
References
- ^ Bristow, AF; Barrowcliffe, T; Bangham, DR (22 September 2006). "Standardization of biological medicines: the first hundred years, 1900-2000". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. 60 (3): 271–89. doi:10.1098/rsnr.2006.0153. PMID 17212227. S2CID 19811694.
- ^ "David Finney, statistician who developed systems for monitoring the safety of prescribed drugs – obituary". The Telegraph. The Telegraph. 25 November 2018. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
- ^ The International Who's Who 1996–97, p. 499, at Google Books
- ^ "Honorary Life Member David Finney Turns 100". The International Biometric Society (Press release). Archived from the original on 16 January 2017.
- ^ David Finney celebrates 100th birthday by McDonnell, S. Significance April 2017
- ^ "David Finney 1917-2018". StatsLife. Royal Statistical Society. 15 November 2018. Archived from the original on 17 November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
- ^ "Remembering David Finney". www.biometricsociety.org. International Biometric Society. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
- ^ View/Search Fellows of the ASA Archived 16 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
- ^ "Professor David John Finney CBE FRS FRSE - The Royal Society of Edinburgh". The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
- ^ Finney DJ. From thalidomide to pharmacovigilance: a personal account. Meyler's Side Effects of Drugs Annual 2003, in vol. 26.
- ^ "Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh: Honorary Graduates". www1.hw.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
- ^ "About Us". World Cultural Council. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
External links
- MacNeill, I. (1993). "A Conversation With David J. Finney". Statistical Science. 8 (2): 187–201. doi:10.1214/ss/1177011012. Retrieved 22 September 2007.
- Joyce, H. (December 2005). "Experimental design and systematic monitoring". Significance. 2 (4): 171–173. doi:10.1111/j.1740-9713.2005.00131.x.
- "David J.Finney". Biographical Notes (1984). Instituto Vasco of Estadística (EUSTAT). Retrieved 22 September 2007.
- D. J. Finney at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- Audio recording of interview for James Lind Library archive on 18 November 2009 [1]
- D. J. Finney on the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group website
- v
- t
- e
- 1834–1836 The Marquess of Lansdowne
- 1836–1838 Sir Charles Lemon, Bt
- 1838–1840 The Earl FitzWilliam
- 1840–1842 Viscount Sandon
- 1842–1843 The Marquess of Lansdowne
- 1843–1845 Lord Ashley
- 1845–1847 The Lord Monteagle of Brandon
- 1847–1849 The Earl FitzWilliam
- 1849–1851 The Earl of Harrowby
- 1851–1853 The Lord Overstone
- 1853–1855 The Earl FitzWilliam
- 1855–1857 The Earl of Harrowby
- 1857–1859 Lord Stanley
- 1859–1861 Lord John Russell
- 1861–1863 Sir John Pakington, Bt
- 1863–1865 William Henry Sykes
- 1865–1867 The Lord Houghton
- 1867–1869 William Ewart Gladstone
- 1869–1871 William Newmarch
- 1871–1873 William Farr
- 1873–1875 William Guy
- 1875–1877 James Heywood
- 1877–1879 George Shaw-Lefevre
- 1879–1880 Thomas Brassey
- 1880–1882 James Caird
- 1882–1884 Robert Giffen
- 1884–1886 Rawson W. Rawson
- 1886–1888 George Goschen
- 1888–1890 Thomas Graham Balfour
- 1890–1892 Frederic J. Mouat
- 1892–1894 Charles Booth
- 1894–1896 The Lord Farrer
- 1896–1897 John Biddulph Martin
- 1897 Alfred Edmund Bateman
- 1897–1899 Leonard Courtney
- 1899–1900 Henry Fowler
- 1900–1902 The Lord Avebury
- 1902–1904 Patrick George Craigie
- 1904–1905 Sir Francis Powell, Bt
- 1905–1906 The Earl of Onslow
- 1906–1907 Richard Martin
- 1907–1909 Sir Charles Dilke, Bt
- 1909–1910 Jervoise Athelstane Baines
- 1910–1912 Lord George Hamilton
- 1912–1914 Francis Ysidro Edgeworth
- 1914–1915 The Lord Welby
- 1915–1916 Lord George Hamilton
- 1916–1918 Bernard Mallet, Registrar General
- 1918–1920 Herbert Samuel
- 1920–1922 R. Henry Rew
- 1922–1924 The Lord Emmott
- 1924–1926 Udny Yule
- 1926–1928 The Viscount D'Abernon
- 1928–1930 A. William Flux
- 1930–1932 Sir Josiah Stamp
- 1932–1934 The Lord Meston
- 1934–1936 Major Greenwood
- 1936–1938 The Lord Kennet
- 1938–1940 Arthur Lyon Bowley
- 1940–1941 Henry William Macrosty
- 1941 Hector Leak
- 1941–1943 William Beveridge
- 1943–1945 Ernest Charles Snow
- 1945–1947 The Lord Woolton
- 1947–1949 David Heron
- 1949–1950 Sir Geoffrey Heyworth
- 1950–1952 Austin Bradford Hill
- 1952–1954 Ronald Fisher
- 1954–1955 The Lord Piercy
- 1955–1957 Egon Pearson
- 1957–1959 Harry Campion
- 1959–1960 Hugh Beaver
- 1960–1962 Maurice Kendall
- 1962–1964 Joseph Oscar Irwin
- 1964–1965 Sir Paul Chambers
- 1965–1966 L. H. C. Tippett
- 1966–1967 M. S. Bartlett
- 1967–1968 Frank Yates
- 1968–1969 Arthur Cockfield
- 1969–1970 R. G. D. Allen
- 1970–1971 Bernard Benjamin
- 1971–1972 George Alfred Barnard
- 1972–1973 Harold Wilson
- 1973–1974 D. J. Finney
- 1974–1975 Henry Daniels
- 1975–1977 Stella Cunliffe
- 1977–1978 Henry Wynn
- 1978–1980 Sir Claus Moser
- 1980–1982 David Cox
- 1982–1984 Peter Armitage
- 1984–1985 Walter Bodmer
- 1985–1986 John Nelder
- 1986–1987 James Durbin
- 1987–1989 John Kingman
- 1989–1991 Peter G. Moore
- 1991–1993 T. M. F. Smith
- 1993–1995 D. J. Bartholomew
- 1995–1997 Adrian Smith
- 1997–1999 Robert Nicholas Curnow
- 1999–2001 Denise Lievesley
- 2001–2003 Peter Green
- 2003–2005 Andy Grieve
- 2005–2007 Tim Holt
- 2008–2009 David Hand
- 2010–2010 Bernard Silverman (resigned Feb 2010; replaced pro tem by David Hand)
- 2011–2012 Valerie Isham
- 2013–2014 John Pullinger
- 2014–2016 Peter Diggle
- 2017–2018 David Spiegelhalter
- 2019– Deborah Ashby
- Category
- List