Cambridge University Reporter


Report of the General Board on the establishment of a Professorship of Statistics in Biomedicine

The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. Statistical design and analysis play an increasingly important role in biomedical research, as new technologies give rise to vast amounts of new data. With the recent dramatic successes in the genetics of common disease, and in the genome-wide correlation of gene expression and splicing with DNA polymorphisms, and the increasing use of other high throughput technologies to profile plasma, serum, and urine, as well as whole blood samples by multicolour flow cytometry, there is an increasing need to ensure the best statistical design of projects and innovative statistical analysis of the resulting data. Studies involving imaging, mass spectrometry, gene and protein expression and modification, DNA sequencing, and genetics all require high-level statistical collaborations if they are to yield the developments in our understanding of disease and in the development of novel therapies which they promise.

2. The University of Cambridge is well placed to contribute to these exciting developments in Medical Science, through its School of Clinical Medicine, and, through its close collaborations with NHS Trusts, in particular as Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and the Mental Health Partnership Trust, to ensure that these developments are effectively translated into clinical practice.

3. The Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine consider that, in order to realize this potential, it is necessary to maintain critical mass and world-class expertise in statistical and mathematical analysis in a biomedical context. Accordingly, they have concluded that there is a need to establish a Professorship of Statistics in Biomedicine. The Professor will have a proven track record in statistics in the biological and medical sciences and will collaborate with research groups involved in large-scale, genome-based, human disease research, both in the Department of Medical Genetics, and elsewhere in the School of Clinical Medicine. Funding for the Professorship will be provided by the School of Clinical Medicine from within the budgets identified in its five-year plan.

4. The General Board have accepted the case made by the Faculty Board; they have agreed to propose the establishment of the Professorship from 1 January 2009. The Board are assured that the proposed Professorship will attract a strong field of well-qualified candidates; they have agreed to concur in the view of the Faculty Board that an election to the Professorship should be made by an ad hoc Board of Electors and that candidature should be open without limitation or preference to all persons whose work falls within the general field of the title of the Professorship. The Faculty Board will provide support and facilities for the work of the Professor from within existing resources.

5. The General Board recommend:

That a Professorship of Statistics in Biomedicine be established in the University, for a single tenure from 1 January 2009, placed in Schedule B of the Statutes, and assigned to the Department of Medical Genetics.
29 September 2008ALISON RICHARD, Vice-ChancellorTOM BLUNDELLRICHARD HUNTER
 A. P. BAGSHAWW. BORTRICKD. W. B. MACDONALD
 NICK BAMPOSWILLIAM BROWNMELVEENA MCKENDRICK
 GRAEME BARKERPHILIP FORDPATRICK SISSONS
 JOHN BELLRICHARD FRIENDI. H. WHITE