McMaster University

Peter D. M. Macdonald, B.Sc., M.Sc., D.Phil., P.Stat.

Professor of Mathematics and Statistics


A Brief Academic Curriculum Vitae

I was born in Windsor, Ontario and spent my early years in Toronto. I attended Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute, then Trinity College at the University of Toronto, obtaining a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Applications in 1966 and an M.Sc. in Mathematical Statistics in 1967.

I went up to New College, Oxford, in September 1967. My doctoral work in Biomathematics at the University of Oxford, supervised by Professor M.S. Bartlett, F.R.S., led to a D.Phil. in 1971.

In July of 1971 I joined the Department of Applied Mathematics at McMaster University as Assistant Professor. I was promoted to Associate Professor in 1978 and Professor in 1983, while the Department evolved to become Mathematical Sciences and later Mathematics and Statistics. I was Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Statistics for much of my time at McMaster. On July 1, 2010 I became Professor Emeritus in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

Sabbatical positions include l'Institut National de la Santé at de la Recherche Médicale in Villejuif, France (1977-78), and La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia (1986).

I have held many positions in the Statistical Society of Canada, including that of President in 1990-91. In 1989 I received the SSC Service Award. The SSC began accrediting Canadian statisticians in 2004; I applied for and received the P.Stat. (Professional Statistician) designation in 2005.

Since 2000, I have served on numerous United States Environmental Protection Agency FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panels, reviewing methodology proposed by the EPA for pesticide risk assessment.

My research has included stochastic models for cell proliferation, mark-recapture methods, mixture distributions and the reconstruction of ancient Safaitic genealogies.


Last updated 2010-05-14
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