mathematics

Jonathan Sterne

Jonathan Sterne is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jonathan Sterne rather than just read about it. In short: Jonathan A.C. Sterne is a British statistician, NIHR Senior Investigator, Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, and the former Head of School of Social and Community Medicine at the University of Bristol.

Key takeaways

Jonathan Sterne belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jonathan Sterne to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jonathan Sterne from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jonathan A.C. Sterne is a British statistician, NIHR Senior Investigator, Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, and the former Head of School of Social and Community Medicine at the University of Bristol. He is co-author of “Essential Medical Statistics”, which received Highly Commended honors in the 2004 BMA Medical Book Competition.

Work Sterne has been identified by Clarivate Analytics as a "Highly Cited Researcher" in the last three years, based on multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in Web of Science. His research interests include methodology for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, clinical epidemiology of HIV and AIDS in the era of antiretroviral therapy, causal inference, methodology for epidemiology and health services research, and epidemiology of asthma and allergic diseases. Sterne has led the development of the ROBINS-I tool for assessing risk of bias in non-randomized studies of interventions and the Cochrane Risk of Bias (RoB) tool for randomized trials. He also leads a large collaboration of HIV cohort studies, which has advanced understanding of prognosis in HIV positive people. He also authored a number of meta-analysis software routines used by students and researchers worldwide. On 28 August 2019 Sterne, along with Julian Higgins and colleagues, published in The RoB 2 tool in the British Medical Journal, an updated version of the leading tool for assessing risk of bias in randomized trials included in systematic reviews. Sterne was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2021.

Education Sterne completed his undergraduate studies in mathematics at the University of Oxford. He holds an MSc and PhD in statistics from the University College London.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jonathan Sterne

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jonathan Sterne claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jonathan Sterne before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jonathan Sterne ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jonathan Sterne

In research: Jonathan Sterne appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jonathan Sterne in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jonathan Sterne is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century British statisticians, Academics of the University of Bristol, Alumni of University College London, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jonathan Sterne outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jonathan Sterne in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jonathan Sterne means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jonathan Sterne out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jonathan Sterne in simple terms?

Why does Jonathan Sterne matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jonathan Sterne?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jonathan Sterne.