Three major UK utility providers form new partnership with the National Digital Twin programme in critical step toward resilient infrastructure in developing a Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo). The collaboration will apply the UK’s state of the art capabilities in systems engineering, digital asset management and modelling to the climate crisis to plan a more resilient built environment, keeping us all safer in the face of flooding and extreme weather. Professor Jim Q. Smith has joined this collaboration and will lead the elicitation of the vulnerability of asset owners' critical infrastructure relevant to assessing and mitigating the deepening threats posed to water, telecommunications and power supply as a result of increasing flooding risks induced by climate change.

The Athena Swan Charter is an international framework to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE) and research. It was established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment. The Charter is now used more broadly, to address barriers to progression that affect all under represented groups in HE.

Previously the department held a Bronze Award which showed its initial investment into consideration of gender equality. The Silver Award celebrates the departments progress in identifying and tackling inequalities.

The Statistics Department has signed up to the Athena Swan Charter by:
1) Working towards gender equality and an equitable working environment for students, academics and support staff.
2) Carrying out a self-assessment to identify areas of good practice alongside areas for improvement.
3) Taking forward an action plan covering a range of issues such as recruitment, training, mentoring and flexible working patterns.
4) Being committed to encouraging more female representation among undergraduate and postgraduate students, supporting improved progression of women into academia.
5) Committing ourselves to share good practice with other departments and institutions, which is a key element in aiming for the Gold Award.

The Silver Award is valid until at least August 2026.

PhD student Stefan Stein has been awarded an Honourable Mention in the 2021 Doctoral Researcher Awards (DRA) in the category Natural & Life Sciences. DRA (http://drawards.org.uk) is a UK wide academic competition which is awarded annually to junior researchers who are pursuing (or have recently completed) doctoral degrees in the UK. Stefan was recognized for his work based on two papers advancing our understanding of high-dimensional random networks (joint with PhD supervisor Chenlei Leng).

The official award ceremony took place on 11th Sept 2021, featuring 2016 Nobel laureate Professor Duncan Haldane and Derrick Roberts (amongst others).

Stefan also won an IMS Hannan Graduate Student Travel Award and a Honorable Mention in ASA's SLDS Student Paper Award competition earlier this year. Congratulations on your hat trick, Stefan.

Congratulations to Emeritus Professor David Firth who has been announced as RSS president for 2023-24.
https://www.rss.org.uk/news-publication/news-publications/2021/general-news/david-firth-confirmed-as-next-rss-president/