Person profile

Rob Kempton (Biomathematics & Statistics Scotland)

Since obtaining a postgraduate qualification in applied statistics, I have worked as a statistician for three agricultural and biological research organisations. I am keenly interested in applications, and find these are essential to provide the focus and motivation for tackling the mathematics.

My enthusiasm for biometry comes from the opportunity it provides for becoming involved in a wide range of applications in the life sciences, spanning agriculture, the environment, food, medicine and health. In the last couple of years my work has involved:

• designing field trials to take account of interplot competition for variety testing
• reviewing work on measurement of species diversity for an encyclopaedia
• developing models for human responses to sensory stimuli for a food quality laboratory
• studying ways of assessing health risks from pesticides for a government working party.
• I also like the one-to-one contact with people that one gets in consultancy work, and the increasing international character of scientific research. All in all, it's turned out to be the best possible career for me.

Sadly Rob Kempton passed away suddenly in May 2003. With the agreement of his family, we have maintained his personal profile on our website as a tribute to a respected colleague and distinguished statistician and as a testament to his enthusiasm for biometry and statistics in general.