MRC Biostatistics Unit
Many congratulations to former BSU PhD student, Oliver Crook, on winning the Young Biometrician Award 2023 for work undertaken during his PhD, with his paper Semi-Supervised Nonparametric Bayesian Modelling of Spatial Proteomics, published in The Annals of Applied Statistics.
During his PhD, Olly was supervised by Paul Kirk at the BSU, as well as by Kathryn Lilley (Biochemistry; Cambridge Centre for Proteomics) and Laurent Gatto (now at the de Duve Institute, UCLouvain). Olly joins a long line of current and former BSU winners of this award over the past 10 years – Hélène Ruffieux (2021), Sean Yiu (2019), Anaïs Rouanet (2017), and David Robertson (2015).
The panel felt that Olly’s paper was extremely well written, with a clear description of an impressive technical analysis and implementation of complex stochastic modelling. The paper gave a clear, readable outline of the application area and spatial proteomics, and provided ample justification for the approach. The modelling required was challenging, but Olly dealt with each issue carefully and thoroughly and the end result was genuinely innovative and, ultimately, should prove useful to biologists – especially as software used in the paper has been included in an R package.
Olly said:
“I wish to express gratitude for being awarded the Young Biometrician Award. Being recognized in this way, for developing statistical methodology for biologists, reinforces a desire to democratize advanced and appropriate methods for complex biological data. This work was performed whilst a Joint PhD student at the BSU and the Department of Biochemistry in Cambridge which together provided the perfect research environment for students to succeed and their work to be impactful for their intended audience. The work would not have come together without Paul Kirk whose supervision was vital.”
The Young Biometrician Award is co-sponsored by the British and Irish Region of the International Biometric Society and the Fisher Memorial Trust. The judges have also awarded Richard Glennie from the University of St Andrews. Olly has received a certificate and cash prize, and will present his work at a future scientific meeting of the British & Irish Region.
Read more about the Young Biometrician Award: Honours & Awards – Region – BIR (biometricsociety.org)