Distinguished Professor Noel Cressie from the University of Wollongong, Australia, has been awarded the 2025 Hannan Medal by the Australian Academy of Science.
This award recognises outstanding research achievements in the mathematical sciences, including statistics. The medal is named in honour of the late Professor E. J. Hannan FAA FASSA. On behalf of the International Statistical Institute, congratulations!
Professor Cressie is Director of the Centre for Environmental Informatics within the National Institute for Applied Statistics Research Australia (NIASRA) at UOW and holds the position of Distinguished Professor in the School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics. He is also a TIES member and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute.
A globally recognised expert in spatial and spatio-temporal statistics, Professor Cressie has made significant contributions to statistical methodology and its application in environmental science. His work focuses particularly on large-scale environmental phenomena, such as oceanic and atmospheric processes and climate systems. He has developed innovative Bayesian statistical methods that integrate physical principles with stochastic modelling, allowing for the rigorous quantification of uncertainty in scientific inference based on large and complex datasets.
His research has been widely applied in areas including global carbon dioxide flux estimation, regional climate analysis, sea surface temperature modelling, air pollution, disease mapping, ocean biogeochemical cycles, soil carbon dynamics, glacier movement, and river pollution. His recent work on uncertainty in climate-model downscaling investigates causal relationships between ecology and climate, supporting the development of evidence-based environmental policy.
The award of the Hannan Medal is a fitting recognition of Professor Cressie’s outstanding contributions to both theoretical statistics and its impactful application to critical global challenges.
More information can be found on the Australian Academy of Science website.
