R. A. Bailey: home page

Who am I? Research interests Design Seminars PhD Students Teaching Books My timetable

Who am I?

I obtained a DPhil in Mathematics from the University of Oxford under the supervision of Graham Higman. My thesis was about finite permutation groups. I spent six years working in the Faculty of Mathematics at the Open University. In the middle of that period I had a post-doctoral research fellowship at Edinburgh University, where I worked with Desmond Patterson of the Agricultural Research Council's Unit of Statistics and converted myself into a statistician. I put my new knowledge into practice in 10 years in the Statistics Department of Rothamsted Experimental Station. Following that I was Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Goldsmiths' College, University of London, before moving to my present position.

In June 2007, my colleagues held a birthday conference for me.

In July-August 2008 I was coorganizer of a programme on the Design of Experiments at the Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge. I was also coorganizer of the six-month programme on the Design and Analysis of Experiments held at INI from July to December 2011.

I have served on the British Combinatorial Committee, Council of the London Mathematical Society, the Research Section of the Royal Statistical Society, the Committee of the UK TeX Users' Group, the Joint Mathematical Council, and the Council of the International Biometric Society. From November 2000 to November 2002 I was president of the British Region of the International Biometric Society.

Research interests

Related to this are certain finite combinatorial objects (such as Latin squares, incomplete block designs, association schemes) and their automorphism groups.

• List of publications
• Some preprints
• Recent and forthcoming talks
• Recent and future conference organization

Some specific topics

• Design of the month
• Semi-Latin squares
• Neighbour-balanced designs
• Randomization
• Block and treatment structures
• Multitiered experiments
• Factorial designs
• Association schemes
• History of design

Collaboration with other scientists

I also made a very modest mathematical contribution to some air navigation software.

Design of Experiments seminars at QMUL

PhD students

Teaching

Books

• Normal Linear Models, University of London, 1993. 141pp. ISBN 07187 1176 9
• Surveys in Combinatorics, 1997, London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series, 241, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997. 338 pp. ISBN 0 521 59840 0.
• Association Schemes: Designed Experiments, Algebra and Combinatorics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004. 387pp. ISBN 0 521 82446 X.
• Design of Comparative Experiments (listed on Intute)

Public Understanding of Statistics and Mathematics

I do care about the public understanding of science, especially statistics and mathematics. I was president of the Mathematical Sciences section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science from 1997 to 1998. I was a contributor to the booklet Making Sense of Statistics launched by Sense About Science on 29 April 2010.

This is linked to concern about pre-university education. I contributed to the booklet A new level published by Reform on 16 June 2009.

A photo

Statement

• a community of scholars and not a confederacy of self-seekers;
• the idea of openness and not ownership;
• the professor as a pursuer of truth and not an entrepreneur;
• the student as an acolyte whose preferences are to be formed, not a consumer whose preferences are to be satisfied.”

I believe that university students should be able to be confident that they are being taught by people who are immersed in the subject in other ways than teaching. I collaborate with a range of scientists on the design of their experiments and the analysis of their data, so I teach Statistics. I still prove theorems in Combinatorics and Algebra, so I also teach those subjects.

Another statement

André, un vrai chercheur ...
Celui qui suit ses idées et non pas celles de la mode du jour. Celui qui ne prend pas pour acquis ce qu'on lit dans les journaux scientifiques mais s'attache à comprendre par lui-même. Quelqu'un qui va jusqu'au bout de ce qu'il entreprend. Une belle citation de J. B. Denis, un de ses collègues de longue date: “Avançant orthogonalement aux autres, il accroît la dimension de nos espaces. ”

I find it hard to imagine a better tribute to a researcher.

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Page modified 18/01/13