Today we are announcing the finalists of the 2021 Statistical Excellence Award for Early-Career Writing, with stories about luck, life expectancy, and a weather-predicting tortoise.
Judges met last week to review submissions from writers in Canada, India, Mexico, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States, and there was a wide variety of topics on offer: from Covid-19 and global warming, to music, healthcare, academic publishing, and data visualisation.
After much discussion and debate, judges selected the following three finalists (in alphabetical order):
- Anna Beukenhorst, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard and an honorary research associate at the University of Manchester, for the article “Are professors and football stars just lucky?”
- Conner Jackson, a research instructor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, for the article, “Pietro the Weather Tortoise and the Pursuit of Soggy Bun Prevention”
- Nicola Rennie, a PhD student at Lancaster University, for the article, “We’re not getting any younger! Or should that be older?”
The winner of this year’s award will be announced on Thursday 15 July as part of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) Statistical Excellence Awards Ceremony. Register now to watch the ceremony online from 12 p.m. (BST).
The Statistical Excellence Award for Early-Career Writing is jointly awarded by Significance and the RSS Young Statisticians Section.
