Ruth King

Ruth King is the Thomas Bayes' Chair of Statistics in the School of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, a position she has held since 2015. In 2023, she was appointed as the Director of the Bayes Centre, the University's Innovation Hub for Data Science and AI. Her research focuses on developing novel statistical techniques applied to ecology and epidemiology, particularly in capture-recapture models, state-space models, and Bayesian inference. King's academic journey includes a BSc in Mathematics with Statistics and PhD from the University of Bristol, followed by positions at the University of Cambridge and University of St Andrews. Her excellence has been recognized through numerous honors, including fellowships in the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Learned Society of Wales, and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. She was awarded the RSS Barnett Award in 2022 for her contributions to statistical ecology and Bayesian statistics. King is an internationally recognized researcher with over 2,000 citations, co-author of influential textbooks in statistical ecology, and actively contributes to the field through her role at the Alan Turing Institute and leadership in major conferences, including her recent appointment as programme chair for the RSS 2025 International Conference in Edinburgh.