Peter Macdonald, professor emeritus of mathematics and statistics at McMaster University, has been named an honorary member of the Statistical Society of Canada (SSC). This award is intended to honour an individual who has made exceptional contributions to the development of the statistical sciences in Canada and whose work has had a major impact in this country.

Peter was born in Windsor, Ontario, on November 7, 1943. His parents moved shortly thereafter to Toronto, where he grew up with his older sister and younger brother. His father, Duncan (Pete) Macdonald, an electrical engineer, had been injured while serving in the Navy during World War II and was always happiest while fishing with his family on Georgian Bay. Thus began Peter’s lifelong interest in nature and wildlife.

Peter chose the notorious Mathematics, Physics & Chemistry program at the University of Toronto, where David Andrews and Mary Thompson were among his classmates. Encouraged by Daniel DeLury, the chair of Mathematics, he specialized in statistics and gained practical experience through summer internships with the Fisheries Research Board of Canada at Saint Andrews (1965), Nanaimo (1966) and Winnipeg (1967). After completing his BSc in 1966 and an MSc in mathematical statistics in 1967, he went to the University of Oxford, where he specialized in biomathematics. His thesis was written under the supervision of Maurice Bartlett, a pioneer in inference with data from temporal and spatial random processes.

Peter completed his DPhil in 1971 and was hired as an assistant professor at McMaster University. He was promoted to associate professor in 1978 and professor in 1983. Except for sabbatical leaves in Paris (1977–78) and at La Trobe University in Australia (1986), he lived and worked in Hamilton throughout his career. After retirement in 2010 he taught statistics at McMaster as a sessional instructor until 2014 while also teaching French horn at Redeemer University College (2010–12) and Mohawk College (2011–13) in Hamilton. Indeed, Peter is an accomplished musician. He was a founding member of the McMaster Symphony Orchestra in 1973 and has remained with that group as it evolved to become the Burlington Symphony Orchestra. Currently he also plays with Sinfonia Ancaster and the Brock University Wind Ensemble.

As a researcher, Peter has had a career-long interest in fitting finite mixture models and the development of software for this purpose, including the program MIX with Philip Green (1988) and the R package mixdist (2008). In the 1970s, he developed models for size-frequency data, seasonal growth in fish, and cell population kinetics. In the 1980s, he worked on mark-recapture estimation problems related to salmon smolt runs from a salmon enhancement project in British Columbia. More recently, some of his publications have addressed the structure and demography of populations of Atlantic herring in waters off Newfoundland, horseshoe crabs of the Delaware Bay, and the round goby in Hamilton Harbour. During his career, he supervised 13 MSc students and coedited one book and numerous research articles on topics such as non-linear estimation and branching-process models for cell proliferation.

It is an understatement to say that Peter has contributed a great deal to the SSC. He was one of the Society’s architects. In addition to holding many high-profile roles within the organization, he has steadily and consistently done yeoman service over six decades. He was program chair for the 1980 annual meeting, treasurer from 1981 to 1984, and managing editor of Liaison from 1988 to 1991. A member of the executive committee from 1989 to 1992, he was president of the SSC in 1990–91. His exemplary services were recognized by the Distinguished Service Award in 1989.

Since then, Peter has continued to serve the SSC in many ways, including Web editor/electronic Services Manager (2000–08), local arrangements chair for the 2002 annual meeting in Hamilton, and electronic communications manager (2013–17). He was one of the authors of the original by-laws of the Society and a member of the committee that chose the coat of arms. A strong supporter of professional accreditation, he obtained his P.Stat. in 2005 and served on the accreditation appeals committee (2012–14) and the accreditation committee (2019–). Moreover, he has chronicled the history of the Society as photographer at most SSC annual meetings for just over 40 years, from 1979 to 2019—the last in-person meeting before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beyond his profound commitment towards the SSC, Peter was chair of the local organizing committee for the 1994 International Biometric Conference (IBC) in Hamilton, and he served on the organizing committee for the 2006 IBC in Montréal. From 2000 to 2014, his extensive experience, versatility and sound judgment also benefited the Scientific Advisory Panel of the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. He remains a member of the GERAS Center for Aging Research at McMaster.

In his spare time, Peter enjoys the company of his five children (David, Gordon, Douglas, Jamie and Katharine), their spouses, and his 13 grandchildren, with whom he often makes canoe trips through the French River and Georgian Bay, Algonquin Park and the Kawartha Highlands. He cherishes happy memories of his 45 years of matrimony with the late Reverend Ann (née Hart) Macdonald, retired priest in the Diocese of Niagara and an enthusiastic supporter of the SSC, who died in 2014, in her 71st year.

The citation for the award reads:

“To Peter D. M. Macdonald, in recognition of his long record of service in the Statistical Society of Canada and the profession, his active involvement in student training and mentoring, and his promotion of the best data analysis practices, notably in the field of fisheries science.”

This text was written by Christian Genest, who made the nomination.