Simon French Event Registration 2022
We are delighted to announce that the postponed retirement seminar for Prof. Simon French will be held on 6th September 11.00-16.00 at the University of Warwick Mathematical Sciences Building.
Simon is best known for his work on decision analysis, which began with his early work on decision theory and saw several papers on the mathematical foundations of rational decision making and the publication of his 1986 text on Decision Theory. That strand of work still continues in the background: e.g. his book on Statistical Decision Theory, co-authored with David Rios Insua. Building on this work, he has made major contributions in looking at ways of supporting real decision makers facing major strategic and risk issues.
In collaboration with psychologists he has sought to support real decision makers and stakeholders in complex decisions in ways that are mindful of their human characteristics. He has worked on the design of decision support systems, recognising the need to temper and balance the output of models with the needs and behaviours of their users. He has worked on public risk communication and engagement and the wider areas of stakeholder involvement and deliberative democracy. Simon has worked across the public and private sectors, often in contexts that relate to the environment, energy, food safety and the nuclear industry. He has consulted for many regulators and organisations in the public sector: the Department of Health, the UK Food Standards Industry, the European Space Agency, Public Health England, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and many parts of the nuclear industry. In all his work the emphasis is on multi-disciplinary and participatory approaches to solving real problems and the innovative use of technology in supporting decision making. He has a particular interest in supporting emergency management processes. Recently he worked with the UK's Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling Liaison Committee to develop ways of communicating spatial uncertainty to COBR, the UK's national crisis management cell. That work is continuing in CONFIDENCE, an Euratom H2020 project. In 2017 Simon was awarded the Ramsey Medal by the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society for his research in and applications of risk and decision analysis.
Simon's research career began in Bayesian statistics, and he was one of the first to apply hierarchical modelling, particularly in the domain of protein crystallography. He moved from Manchester Business School, where he was Professor of Information and Decision Sciences to Department of Statistics at the University of Warwick in August 2011 to take up the Directorship of RISCU, the department's Risk Initiative and Statistical Consultancy Unit. At the beginning of 2017, he handed over the Directorship to Dr Martine Barons as RISCU was re-envisioned as the Applied Statistics and Risk Unit (AS&RU), of which he remained a valued a member until his retirement in 2020.
The day will consist of a number of scientific talks by invited speakers followed by lunch and contributed appreciations with a wine reception. There will be a nominal charge of £15 towards catering costs. Accommodation can also be arranged; please indicate on the registration form below. If you would like to contribute an appreciation or for any other queries please email martine.barons@warwick.ac.ukLink opens in a new window.
Date: Tuesday 6th September 2022
Time: Starting at 11am and finishing with a wine reception at 4pm
Venue: MS.04, The Zeeman Building (for the seminar) and The Atrium, Mathematical Sciences Building (for the lunch, refreshments and wine reception)