biology

Peter Donnelly

Peter Donnelly is a biology 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 Peter Donnelly rather than just read about it. In short: Sir Peter James Donnelly (born 15 May 1959) is an Australian-British mathematician and Professor of Statistical Science at the University of Oxford, and the CEO of Genomics PLC. He is a specialist in applied probability and has made contributions to coalescent theory.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Sir Peter James Donnelly (born 15 May 1959) is an Australian-British mathematician and Professor of Statistical Science at the University of Oxford, and the CEO of Genomics PLC. He is a specialist in applied probability and has made contributions to coalescent theory. His research group at Oxford has an international reputation for the development of statistical methodology to analyze genetic data.

Background, family and education Peter James Donnelly was born and raised in Brisbane, Queensland, the son of financial adviser, economic theorist and author Austin Donnelly and Sheila Donnelly. He is the brother of Sharon Donnelly and of eminent Australian financier, funds manager and company director Melda Donnelly. He was educated at St. Joseph's Christian Brothers College, Gregory Terrace, and later at the University of Queensland and at Balliol College, Oxford.

Professional life When elected to a chair at Queen Mary College, London in 1988 Donnelly was only 29. He held a chair at the University of Chicago (1994–96) and was head of the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford from 1996 to 2001. From 2007 to 2018, he was Director, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics (WTCHG) in Oxford. He is a fellow at St Anne's College, Oxford. Many leading statistical geneticists worked with Donnelly as young researchers including David Balding, Matthew Stephens and Jonathan Pritchard. One area in which he has a leading reputation is in the interpretation of DNA evidence. He has acted as an expert witness on forensic science in criminal trials. He is noted for his collaborative work with biologists. He has been heavily involved in a number of large scale projects, such as the International HapMap Project and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, a genome-wide association study. In 2015, Donnelly was elected as Chairman of the Royal Society's Machine Learning Working Group.

Awards and honours Donnelly was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006 and also elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2008. Other significant awards and honours have included:

1980 University Medal, University of Queensland 1980-1983 Rhodes Scholarship 1984-1985 University of Wales Research Fellowship 1988 Elected Ordinary Member of the International Statistical Institute 1990 Special Invited Lecturer, Institute of Mathematical Statistics 1990-1995 SERC Advanced Fellowship 1995 Elected Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics 1999 Elected Honorary Fellow, Institute of Actuaries 2000 Bernoulli Lecturer, 5th World Congress of the Bernoulli Society 2001 Forum Lecturer, European Meeting of Statisticians 2002 Editor's Invited Paper, Statistical Society of Australia 2002 Mitchell Prize, of the American Statistical Association and ISBA 2004 Guy Medal in Silver, Royal Statistical Society 2007 Medallion Lecturer, Institute of Mathematical Statistics. 2007 The main paper from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, which Donnelly chaired, won several awards, including The Lancet's Paper of the Year, Scientific American's Research Leader of the Year, the Amadeus Prize, and one of Nature's Editor's Picks for 2007. 2009 Awarded the Weldon Memorial Prize 2022 Awarded an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Melbourne Donnelly was knighted in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to the understanding of human genetics in disease.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter Donnelly

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter Donnelly claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, 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 Peter Donnelly 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 Peter Donnelly 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 Peter Donnelly

In research: Peter Donnelly appears in biology 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 Peter Donnelly 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: Peter Donnelly is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1959 births, Academics of Queen Mary University of London, Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter Donnelly 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 Peter Donnelly in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Peter Donnelly 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 Peter Donnelly out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter Donnelly in simple terms?

Why does Peter Donnelly matter?

Because it connects several biology 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 Peter Donnelly?

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 Peter Donnelly.