View source for Tim Holt (statistician)

{{Short description|British statistician (1943–2022)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Tim Holt
| honorific_suffix  = [[Order of the Bath|CB]]
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=y|1943|10|29}}
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=y|2022|11|15|1943|10|29}}
| workplaces        = [[Statistics Canada]]<br />[[University of Southampton]]
| alma_mater        = [[University of Exeter]]
| thesis_title      = Some contributions to the statistical analysis of single and mixed exponential distributions
| thesis_year       = 1970
| doctoral_advisor  = 
}}

'''David Holt ''' [[Order of the Bath|CB]] (29 October 1943 – 15 November 2022) was a British [[statistician]] who was [[Professor Emeritus]] of Social Statistics at the [[University of Southampton]]. He had been the president of the [[Royal Statistical Society]] (2005–2007), the last director of the [[Central Statistical Office, UK|Central Statistical Office]] of the United Kingdom, and the first director of the [[Office for National Statistics]] (and ex-officio [[Registrar General]]).

==Background==
Holt took a maths degree and a PhD in statistics at [[University of Exeter|Exeter]] with thesis titled ''Some contributions to the statistical analysis of single and mixed exponential distributions'' in 1970. Throughout his career, his main interests have been survey methods, sampling theory and official statistics. He took a particular interest, through his membership of the [[Royal Statistical Society]], in the independence of national statistics from government.

==Career==
Holt's first job was with [[Statistics Canada]], the national statistics office of Canada, where he spent four years before joining the Department of Social Statistics at the [[University of Southampton]] in 1980. He was Leverhulme Professor of Social Statistics from 1980 to 1995 and Deputy Vice-Chancellor from 1990 to 1995. From 1989 to 1991, he was also vice-president of the International Association of Survey Statisticians (IASS).

Holt became the director of the [[Central Statistical Office, UK|Central Statistical Office]] and Head of the Government Statistical Service in 1995 and, subsequently, the first director of the [[Office for National Statistics]] when it was formed on 1 April 1996 from the merger of the [[Central Statistical Office, UK|Central Statistical Office]] (CSO) and the [[Office of Population Censuses and Surveys]] (OPCS). He was President of the Labour Statistics Congress ([[International Labour Organization|ILO]]) in 1997 and vice-chair of the [[United Nations Statistical Commission]] from 1998 to 1999.

Holt returned to the Department of Social Statistics at [[University of Southampton|Southampton]] in 2000, working part-time as professor of social statistics. He carried out consultancy work for the [[United Nations]], the [[International Monetary Fund]] and the [[World Bank]] and was elected president of the [[Royal Statistical Society]] in 2005.

==Awards and honours==
In 1990 he was elected as a [[Fellow of the American Statistical Association]].<ref>[http://www.amstat.org/awards/fellowslist.cfm View/Search Fellows of the ASA], accessed 2016-11-19.</ref>

Holt was appointed a [[Companion of the Order of the Bath]] (CB) in the [[2000 New Year Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=55710 |date=30 December 1999 |page=3  |supp=y}}</ref> He was also the 2003 recipient of the Waksberg Prize in survey methodology.

==Personal life and death==
Holt died on 15 November 2022, at the age of 79.<ref>{{cite news |title=Tim Holt obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/tim-holt-obituary-5ng6sch6r |access-date=3 December 2022 |work=[[The Times]] |date=3 December 2022}} {{subscription required}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}
*[http://www.museumstuff.com/learn/topics/Professor_Tim_Holt::sub::Career ''"Professor Tim Holt: Career"''], Museum of Learning. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
*Tim Holt, Julian Champkin (2007). ''"Tim Holt"'', ''Significance'', vol 4 issue 2, pp 75–76.

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{{succession box | before=[[Bill McLennan]] | title=Director of the [[Central Statistical Office (United Kingdom)|Central Statistical Office]] | after=— | years=1995–1996}}
{{succession box | before=— | title=Director of the [[Office for National Statistics]] | after=[[Len Cook]] | years=1996–2000}}
{{s-end}}

{{Royal Statistical Society presidents}}

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holt, Tim}}

[[Category:1943 births]]
[[Category:2022 deaths]]
[[Category:Directors of the Central Statistical Office (United Kingdom)]]
[[Category:Registrars-General for England and Wales]]
[[Category:Directors of the Office for National Statistics]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society]]
[[Category:Survey methodologists]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Southampton]]
[[Category:British social scientists]]
[[Category:20th-century British mathematicians]]
[[Category:21st-century British mathematicians]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Statistical Association]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Exeter]]