An Imperial College London academic has been elected to be the next President of the Royal Statistical Society.

Professor Deborah Ashby OBE, Imperial’s Chair in Medical Statistics and Clinical trials, will take up the Presidency in 2019 after Sir David Spiegelhalter’s term of office comes to a close.

Professor Ashby, the Co-Director of Imperial Clinical Trials Unit and Deputy Head of Imperial’s School of Public Health, is a chartered statistician who specialises in clinical trials, risk-benefit decision making for medicines and utilising Bayesian approaches in these areas.

“I am deeply honoured to have been elected as the next Royal Statistical Society President,” said Professor Ashby. “I joined the Society as a new graduate and have benefited so much from it ever since.

“Its membership is diverse, and includes those from business and industry, government, the public sector and the academic world. In all of those spheres there are vibrant debates and emerging challenges about data, how we can best use them, and how we can inspire and support a new generation to meet these challenges. I very much look forward to leading the Society at this exciting time.”

Prof Ashby is an honorary member of both the Faculty of Public Health and the Royal College of Radiologists. She was awarded the OBE for services to medicine in the 2009 New Year’s Honours List, appointed a senior investigator at the National Institute for Health Research in 2010 and elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2012.

The position of President of the Royal Statistical Society has been occupied by a number of staff from Imperial College London over recent years including Professor David Hand (2008-2009, 2010), Professor Sir Adrian Smith (1995-1997) and Professor Sir David Cox (1980-1982). Professor Ashby will be the first member of staff from Imperial’s Faculty of Medicine to take on the role.