mathematics

Richard Samworth

Richard Samworth 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 Richard Samworth rather than just read about it. In short: Richard John Samworth (born May 1978) is a British statistician who is the Professor of Statistical Science and the Director of the Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge, and a Teaching Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Richard John Samworth (born May 1978) is a British statistician who is the Professor of Statistical Science and the Director of the Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge, and a Teaching Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge. His main research interests are in nonparametric and high-dimensional statistics. Particular topics include shape-constrained density estimation and other nonparametric function estimation problems, nonparametric classification, clustering and regression, the bootstrap and high-dimensional variable selection problems.

Honours and awards The Research Prize 2008, Royal Statistical Society The Guy Medal in Bronze 2012, Royal Statistical Society Philip Leverhulme Prize 2014, Leverhulme Trust Fellow, Institute of Mathematical Statistics (2014 election) Fellow, American Statistical Association (2015 election) The Adams Prize 2017 The COPSS Presidents' Award 2018 IMS Medallion Lecture 2018 Rustagi Memorial Lecture 2021, The Ohio State University Fellow, Royal Society (2021 election) Arthur Cohen Award & Lecture 2024, Rutgers University IMS Grace Wahba Award & Lecture 2025 The Guy Medal in Silver 2025, Royal Statistical Society David Cox Medal 2025

Selected works Cannings, Timothy I.; Samworth, Richard J. (2017). "Random-projection ensemble classification". Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B (Statistical Methodology). 79 (4): 959–1035. arXiv:1504.04595. doi:10.1111/rssb.12228. Cule, Madeleine; Samworth, Richard; Stewart, Michael (2010). "Maximum likelihood estimation of a multi-dimensional log-concave density". Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B (Statistical Methodology). 72 (5): 545–607. arXiv:0804.3989. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9868.2010.00753.x. S2CID 1524045. Fan, J., Samworth, R. and Wu, Y. (2009), Ultrahigh dimensional feature selection: beyond the linear model, Journal of Machine Learning Research, 10, 2013–2038. Hall, Peter; Park, Byeong U.; Samworth, Richard J. (2008). "Choice of neighbor order in nearest-neighbor classification". The Annals of Statistics. 36 (5): 2135–2152. arXiv:0810.5276. doi:10.1214/07-AOS537.

References

External links Richard Samworth's home page at the University of Cambridge.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Samworth

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Samworth 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 Richard Samworth 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 Richard Samworth 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 Richard Samworth

In research: Richard Samworth 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 Richard Samworth 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: Richard Samworth is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1978 births, 21st-century statisticians, Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Samworth 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 Richard Samworth in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Samworth in simple terms?

Why does Richard Samworth 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 Richard Samworth?

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 Richard Samworth.