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Groundbreaking statistical analysis of compositional geological data.

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Groundbreaking statistical analysis of compositional geological data.

John Aitchison, 2007

Source: Wikipedia

In 1986 John Aitchison published his seminal work entitled The Statistical Analysis of Compositional Data. He defined compositional data as quantitative descriptions of the parts of some whole, conveying exclusively relative information.

From the Krumbein Medal Citation delivered by Ricardo A. Olea:

"He has done important work in statistical research that is crucial to the advancement of quantitative thinking in the earth sciences.... The International Association can be proud, honored, and grateful to include John Aitchison among its distinguished Krumbein medallists"

His methods are suited to apparently diverse fields and have therefore been used widely in for example medical statistics and household expenditure pattern analysis. However, it is in the Earth Sciences that his work has found the most prominent recognition, winning him the prestigious Krumbein Medal from the International Association for Mathematical Geology.

John Aitchison

Mathmetician
Born 1926, East Linton, Scotland.

John Aitchison is an award winning statistician who has been an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Statistics since 1995. Prior to this he was Titular Professor and Mitchell Lecturer on Methods in Statistics from 1966 to 1977, and a Lecturer in Mathematics from 1956 to 1962.

A graduate of Edinburgh and Cambridge, he joined Glasgow's Department of Mathematics in 1956 after lecturing in Cambridge. In 1976 he was seconded to the University of Hong Kong, a post which he decided to make permanent and where he stayed until 1989. There he had a significant effect on teaching and research and his Department flourished. He was a founder member and President of the Hong Kong Statistical Society. In 1989 became Professor and Chairman of Division of Statistics at the University of Virginia.

For his groundbreaking work on compositional analysis, he was awarded the Guy Medal in Silver by the Royal Statistical Society in 1988 and a Krumbein Award from the International Association for Mathematical Geology in 1995. This is its highest award, for exceptional contributions to mathematical geology. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1968.

University Link: Lecturer, Professor

Discover more mathematicians; statisticians on the University of Glasgow Story website

Other Online Resources

Krumbein Medal Award Citation

Printed Materials

Aitchison, J. 1982. The statistical analysis of compositional data. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society B:44,: 139-77.
Aitchison, J. and Greenacre, M. 2002. Biplots for compositional data. Applied Statistics. 51: 375-82.

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Science and Engineering

Timeline Entries

First reading of influential paper

13 January 1982
John Aitchison gave the first reading of "The Statistical Analysis of Compositional Data" which later won him a Royal Statistical Society Guy Medal.
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John Aitchison is awarded the Guy Medal in Silver

1988
John Aitchison is awarded the Guy Medal in Silver for his work on compositional analysis.
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Krumbein Medal awarded in Barcelona.

22 September 1997 - 27 September 1997
John Aitchison is awarded the William Christian Krumbein Medal at the Annual Conference of the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences. The award was first announced in 1995.
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John Aitchison

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