Campbell Award

2025 Recipient: Claire Cameron

Research Associate Professor Claire Cameron is an outstanding and highly productive researcher, as demonstrated by her more than 100 publications. Many have been published in high-impact journals, including prestigious outlets such as The Lancet Infectious Diseases, and many have been heavily cited, with some cited over 100 times. Her research excellence is also demonstrated by her success in obtaining external research funding, including several large grants from the Health Research Council. Her publications include a dozen statistics primers for the New Zealand Medical Student Journal, and she has also been involved in many other activities promoting effective use of statistics, particularly in health research.

Claire is also an outstanding leader. She provided leadership for two years to the biostatistics group at the University of Otago prior to the formation of the Biostatistics Centre in 2017. She then provided substantial support to the incoming Director during the Centre’s establishment. Claire is now Director of the Centre, a role in which she has flourished and continues to provide mentorship and leadership to many.

Alongside her extensive leadership, research, and service roles, Claire has made exceptional contributions to building a community of biostatisticians in Aotearoa New Zealand. These contributions are sometimes single-handed and often collaborative. Highlights include: the Box Plot network, established in 2013; regular meetings of biostatisticians and associated academics on the Dunedin campus, followed by the establishment of a cross-campus group at the University of Otago; the NZ Biostatistics Symposium (2021); the NZ Biostatistics Conference (2023); the inaugural biostatistics session at the NZSA 2025 Conference; the NZSA’s mentoring programme since its inception; and her role as the New Zealand representative on the US-based Caucus of Women in Statistics and Data Science since 2020. Claire has worked tirelessly alongside a diverse range of colleagues and collaborators with the goal of strengthening biostatistics and statistics as disciplines and as careers for future generations.

Claire’s sustained advocacy for biostatisticians and biostatistics as a discipline and her leadership in building strong communities make her a truly deserving recipient of the Campbell Award. On behalf of all those in the communities she has helped create and strengthen, and especially on behalf of the Biostatistics Centre and associates, congratulations, Claire, on this well-deserved achievement, and thank you for all that you do.

The citation above is from Andrew Gray.

The purpose of the award is to promote statistics within NZ and to recognise an individual’s sustained contribution to the promotion and development of statistics.

Next Round

  • Next round opens: TBD
  • Next round closes: TBD

Nominations should be sent to the Convenor of the NZSA Awards Committee, by email at vanessa.cave@auckland.ac.nz.

Award Details

The criteria for the award are:

i) publication of an exceptional body of original statistical research undertaken within NZ; or,

ii) a prolonged and outstanding contribution to statistical education; or,

iii) playing a key role in consulting on major, innovative research projects that has direct relevance to NZ; or,

iv) making a leading contribution to the promotion of statistics within NZ over a sustained period.

  • The award is known as the NZSA Campbell Award.
  • One award will be given annually, at the NZSA annual dinner in conjunction with the annual conference. In exceptional circumstances, more than one award may be given in a year.
  • An award may not necessarily be given out each year.
  • Nominations can be made by individuals or groups of individuals. Nominators may be non-NZSA members. Nominations will include a statement of support from the nominator and may include names of suitable referees.
  • The award may only be given to fully paid up members of the NZSA. All membership categories are eligible.
  • Normally the award will only be given to a member once in their lifetime.
  • An awards convenor will be selected from the current executive who will oversee the process of calling for nominations. The executive will elect an awards panel consisting of the awards convenor and no fewer than two other fully paid up members of the NZSA. The panel will decide on that year’s recipient. The panel may call for any additional information from the nominators.
  • The awards panel will use suitable measures for each of the four criteria. These may include: for research, the publication record, and the originality, applicability, impact of the research; for contribution to statistical education, development of innovative teaching practices and curricula, development within other subjects, and development of links with other practices; for consulting, the project size, profile, application in a new area, rigour, relevance to solving real problems; and in promotion, the appropriate use of statistics and demonstrating the relevance of statistics. In all cases a record of achievement over an extended period is expected.

As the Campbell Award is usually presented at the Conference dinner, the deadline for nominations will usually be late in September.  A call for nominations will be sent to all NZSA members about two months prior to that. To make a nomination, please contact the Convenor of the Awards Committee. The Awardee is presented with a plaque and a certificate, and is a guest of the presentation event.

Recipients of the NZSA Campbell Award are:
YearRecipients of the Campbell Award 
2025Claire Cameron
2024Lisa Thomasen
2022Len Cook
2020Chris Triggs
2018Rachel Fewster
2017Jennifer Brown
2016Mike Camden
2015Maxine Pfannkuch
2014Shirley Pledger
2013John Harraway
2012Chris Wild
2011Roger LittlejohnNewsletter 74, March 2012
2011Alastair ScottNewsletter 74, March 2012
2010Stephen HaslettNewsletter 72, October 2010
2009David Vere-JonesNewsletter 70, September 2009
2008Sharleen ForbesNewsletter 68, September 2008
2006Jeffrey HunterNewsletter 64, September 2006
2003Harold HendersonNewsletter 58, September 2003
2001Murray JorgensenNewsletter 55, April 2002
1999Stan Roberts