The Ethel Newbold Prize for excellence in statistics is awarded every 2 years. The name of the prize recognizes a historically important role of women in statistics. The prize itself is for excellence in statistics without reference to the gender of the recipient. The Ethel Newbold Prize is generously supported by Wiley. 

Description

The Ethel Newbold Prize is to be awarded biennially to an outstanding statistical scientist in early or mid-career for a body of work that represents excellence in research in mathematical statistics, and/or excellence in research that links developments in a substantive field to new advances in statistics.

In any year in which the award is due, the prize will not be awarded unless the set of all nominations includes candidates from both genders.

The award consists of the prize amount of 2500€ together with an award certificate.

The awardee will be invited to present a talk at a following Bernoulli World Congress, Bernoulli-sponsored major conference, or ISI World Statistics Congress.

Call for Nominations

The Bernoulli Society’s Newbold Prize Committee invites nominations for the 2025 Ethel Newbold Prize. Each nomination should include a letter outlining the case in support of the nominee, along with a curriculum vitae. In order to nominate someone, please send your nomination and any inquiries to Adrian Röllin at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The deadline for accepting nominations is 30 November 2024. The prize winner will be selected in early 2025.

The Prize Committee

The awarding of the prize is determined by the Newbold Prize Committee, a three-person committee of members of the Bernoulli Society. The Newbold Prize Committee members are appointed by the President for a term of six years, with one member rotating off the committee each two years. The first Newbold Prize Committee members will have terms of six, four and two years, respectively. No member shall serve for more than eight years. The Chair of the Prize Committee is appointed by the President.

About Ethel Newbold

Ethel May Newbold (1882 – 1933) was an English statistician and the first woman to be awarded the Guy Medal in Silver by the Royal Statistical Society, in 1928. During her short academic career (1921 – 1930) she published 17 papers in statistics and subject matter journals.

After obtaining her undergraduate degree from Cambridge University, she taught school for two years, and then worked for the Ministry of Munitions from 1919 – 1929, which is where her interest in statistics developed. She obtained her MSc and PhD from the University of London in 1926 and 1929, respectively.

Most of her published work was undertaken when she was a member of the National Institute of Medical Research, as the member of a committee appointed by the Medical Research Council to co-ordinate and supervise medical and industrial statistical inquiries. The Guy Medal was awarded for her paper “Practical applications of statistics of repeated events, particularly to industrial accidents” (Newbold, 1927), which was the first to give a theoretical treatment of compound Poisson distributions, for the analysis of accident data in industry.

This information is abstracted from her obituary (Greenwood, 1933).

Greenwood, M. (1933). Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 96, No. 2, 354 – 357.http://www.jstor.org/stable/2341811

Newbold, E. M. (1927). Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 90, No 3, 487 – 547.http://www.jstor.org/stable/2341203

The Newbold Prize Committee

Adrien Roellin (until 12/2025) - chair

Susan Murphy (until 12/2027)

Axel Munk (until 12/2029)

Past Prize Recipients