Sir David R. Cox. 15 July 1924 — 18 January 2022

Abstract

David Cox was the leading statistical scientist of his generation and had an extraordinary influence on the field. His research career spanned some 75 years and 386 published works, with several drafts in preparation at the time of his death. He was held in extremely high regard by the community of scholars for his seminal contributions to scholarship, his enthusiasm for science and his generosity of intellect. One obituary called him a ‘rock star’ of the statistical world, and in spite of the hyperbole the description is apt. His work was very broad; he made influential contributions to the fields of experimental design, stochastic processes, statistical methodology, foundations of inference, statistics in medicine and public health, and more. His 23 published books continue to be key references for students and researchers. His most widely cited paper ( J. R. Stat. Soc. B 34 , 187–220 (1972)) introduced what is now called the Cox model for the analysis of survival data; this was included in Nature ’s list of the top 100 cited scientific papers of all time. He received many accolades, including the Copley Medal (2010) and the inaugural International Prize in Statistics (2016).