Interview With Adrian Raftery

Abstract

SummaryProfessor Adrian E. Raftery is the Boeing International Professor of Statistics and Sociology and an adjunct professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, and obtained a BA in Mathematics (1976) and an MSc in Statistics and Operations Research (1977) at Trinity College Dublin. He obtained a doctorate in mathematical statistics in 1980 from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France, under the supervision of Paul Deheuvels. He was a lecturer in statistics at Trinity College Dublin from 1980 to 1986, and then an associate (1986–1990) and full (1990‐present) professor of statistics and sociology at the University of Washington. He was the founding Director of the Center for Statistics and Social Sciences (1999–2009). Professor Raftery has published over 200 articles in peer‐reviewed statistical, sociological and other journals. His research focuses on Bayesian model selection and Bayesian model averaging, model‐based clustering, inference for deterministic simulation models, and the development of new statistical methods for demography, sociology, and the environmental and health sciences. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy, a member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and an elected Member of the Sociological Research Association. He has won the Population Association of America's Clifford C. Clogg Award, the American Sociological Association's Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award for Distinguished Contribution to Knowledge, the Jerome Sacks Award for Outstanding Cross‐Disciplinary Research from the National Institute of Statistical Sciences, the Parzen Prize for Statistical Innovation, and the Science Foundation Ireland St. Patrick's Day Medal. He is also a former Coordinating and Applications Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association and a former Editor of Sociological Methodology. He was identified as the world's most cited researcher in mathematics for the decade 1995–2005 by Thomson‐ISI. Thirty‐three students have obtained PhD's working under Raftery's supervision, of whom 21 hold or have held tenure‐track university faculty positions. He has over 150 academic descendants. This interview took place over two sessions in March 2023.