Bulletin Number One 1983

An Interview with Professor Howell Tong Q. The Statistics Section was set up in the Department of Mathematics in 1978-79. Is it ready to be expanded into a full department in just four years' time? A: In fact, the establishment of the Statistics Department was originally planned for the last academic year but was delayed for financial reasons. Nowadays no matter what you study, be it science, engineering, medicine, sociology, commerce, or even the humanities (say, linguistics), some knowledge of Statistics is needed. That is why the number of Statistics minors at this University has been increasing quite rapidly during the last four years, and in 1981-82 it was approximately three hundred. Mounting need for statisticians in the government, the business sector and secondary schools which offer matriculation Statistics courses has also pressed for the early establishment of the department. Under such circumstances, further delay would be most unwise especially when the University already has all the resources for the introduction of a major programme : we have an adequate number of Statistics teachers in the University. Q. But I understand that some of them do not really belong to the Statistics Department. A. Right. They were here before the establishment of our Department and were recruited by the Departments of Economics, Sociology and Community Medicine. The presence of Statistics teachers in other departments testifies to the practical value and the diversified nature of Statistics. These fellow statisticians are our 'contacts' and may help to promote interdisciplinary cooperation. At present, our Department is trying to design some programmes to satisfy the needs of those departments which require their students to learn Statistics and to offer more elective courses for interested students. We are also planning to hold formal or informal seminars, regularly if possible, so as to strengthen the ties between all the statisticians within the University. Statistics teachers in other departments can only have limited exchange on Statistics with other members of their home departments. Q. Does your Department have other kinds of interdisciplinary cooperation as well? A. One of the characteristics of Statistics is that it is very much interrelated with other disciplines. Therefore, interdisciplinary cooperation is very natural to us. We consider it a pleasure to discuss and work out statistical problems with other colleagues. We also hope to bring all the Statistics teachers and those interested in the discipline together to form aconsultative group and render services to members of the University and the public. Q. What do you think of the cirriculum of the Statistics Department? A. The Statistics programme was drafted, before my appointment, with the help of several famous British statisticians, one of whom is the world- renowned Professor R.L . Plackett of the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Consequently there are some similarities between the programmes of the two universities. However, in our programme, a systematic introduction of the basic theories is given mainly in the first two years, leaving those courses which emphasize applications mostly to the last two years. Such a programme design is a little different from that of many other British universities. Take the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, from which I came, for example. There, theoretical and applied courses are taught side by side through RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 17