As one of the Medical Research Council’s four foundation units, the MRC Biostatistics Unit will continue celebrating its centenary until the summer of 2014

Centenary celebrations by MRC Biostatistics Unit are grounded in its history and concentrated on the period: November 2013 to August 2014, 100 years on from the decision of the Medical Research Committee to establish a statistical unit and appointment of its first Director: Dr John Brownlee, infectious disease specialist.

Commemorative events to be held in 2014 include:

• on Saturday 15th March at the Cambridge Corn Exchange and Sunday 23 March at the Clinical School, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, where general audience will come and learn how we collect medical data and analyse it using statistics to improve public health;
• on 24-26th March (an international event with more than 200 delegates). The centenary conference highlights the issues – statistical and medical – that had predominated across a century of the Unit’s work, acknowledging those who have supported it along the way and looking forward to what biostatistical research may deliver in the future. For details please visit http://www2.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/mrccob2014.html
• on 4th June (please click here for details). This meeting to mark the centenary of the MRC Biostatistics Unit is jointly organised by the Royal Statistical Society (Medical Section), International Biometric Society (British and Irish Region) and PSI (Statisticians in the Pharmaceutical Industry). This event precedes the BSU co-hosting the by Professor Stuart J. Pocock, with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Professor Pocock will be speaking about “Controversies, calamities and celebrations in clinical trials research”. Registration for these joint events is required.

The MRC Biostatistics Unit’s distinct role

Historically, the strength of the UK medical research community has been based on sound collaboration between clinicians and statisticians, and the MRC (or its predecessor, the Medical Research Committee) has had a Statistical Unit, in various forms, since its inception in 1913-1914.

Sylvia Richardson, MRC BSU director:
“One hundred years on, the Biostatistics Unit (BSU) is one of the largest groups of biostatisticians in Europe, and a major centre for training and knowledge transfer, with mission “to advance biomedical science by maintaining an international leading centre for the development, application and dissemination of statistical methods”. The critical mass of methodological, applied and computational expertise assembled amongst its staff provides a unique and stimulating environment that results in cutting edge biostatistics, with a balance between innovation and dissemination of statistical methods.”

The MRC Biostatistics Unit centenary year offers the BSU an excellent opportunity to celebrate publicly its research successes over the past 100 years, as well as illustrate some of the current works that have positioned the Unit as one of the world’s leading centres in biostatistics research.