![Christian Léger Christian Léger](/sites/default/files/styles/award_winner/public/people/leger2009.jpg?itok=lgeRfau4)
The Statistical Society of Canada announced today that Professor Christian Léger has been awarded the 2009 SSC Distinguished Service Award. This award is given to a member of the SSC who has made substantial contributions to the running or welfare of the Society over a period of several years.
Professor Léger obtained a B.Sc. from McGill University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He then joined the Université de Montréal, where he has been Professor since 1998. At the Université de Montréal he has served in many capacities including the major leadership roles of Deputy and Interim Director of the Centre de recherches mathématiques. He received an excellence in teaching award from the Université de Montréal in 2000.
Over many years, Professor Léger has provided influential direction for the SSC. From the very start of his career he was immediately involved in several SSC committees, and more recently he has held the major roles of Executive Secretary, Program Secretary, member of the SSC-NSERC Liaison committee, Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Statistics, Chair of the Research and Bilingualism committees, Chair of Local Arrangements for SSC 2004, and Program Chair of SSC 2010, the annual meetings of our society. Indeed, Professor Léger has touched on every major aspect of operation of the SSC and has become over the years one of the foundational pillars of our society. Professor Léger has also served the statistical community in Canada and internationally on the NSERC Statistical Sciences grant selection committee, as Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Program for Complex Data Structures, member of the scientific committee of the Banff International Research Station, member of the Statistics Canada's Advisory Committee, and member of the Board of Directors of the MITACS Network of Centres of Excellence. His leadership is marked by high energy, creativity and initiative, by rigour, thoroughness and care, and by great devotion to the SSC and to statistical sciences in Canada.
To Christian Léger, for long and outstanding service to the SSC and to the statistical community of Canada and Québec, in particular through the numerous leadership positions that he has held at the SSC, including secretary, program secretary, member of the SSC-NSERC Liaison Committee, and associate editor of the Canadian Journal of Statistics; for his dedicated work on the NSERC grant selection committee and the Statistics Canada Advisory Committee on Statistical Methods; for his involvement in the National Program on Complex Data Structures; and for his leadership in the establishment and direction of the Statistical Laboratory of the Centre de recherches mathématiques.