Mary Lou Thompson, an emeritus research professor of biostatistics at the University of Washington School of Public Health, has received the 2022 Rob Kempton Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Development of Biometry in the Developing World from the International Biometrics Society (IBS).
IBS cited Thompson’s passion and contributions towards the further development of biometry and biostatistics in South Africa.
“Biostatistics expertise is scarce at many South African universities and there is an urgent need for quantitative skills among healthcare workers,” noted Thompson when she retired in 2020.
To address this, Thompson collaborated with UW and South African colleagues to develop biostatistics workshops and online courses for South African health researchers and healthcare workers.
“These initiatives have been enormously rewarding for me personally and leave a legacy which I hope will continue to make a contribution in South Africa,” said Thompson.
Another IBS honor went to Elizabeth Thompson, a UW emeritus professor of biostatistics and statistics, who was named an Honorary Life Member.
“My research interest has always been the development of models and methods of inference from genetic data on related individuals within a species,” said Elizabeth Thompson, who is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
IBS award winners will be honored at the 2022 IBS Conference in Riga, Latvia, in July.
