This cash prize with accompanying certificate honours Professor Albert Marshall for his seminal work in the theory of statistical reliability and for his contributions to the development of statistics at UBC. The prize is awarded to an outstanding M.Sc. or Ph.D. student in the Department of Statistics who has demonstrated excellence in the discipline of statistics as demonstrated by strength in the development and application of statistical methodology. The award is usually given in the first quarter of the year.
Professor Marshall came to UBC in 1975 to become a Professor of Statistics in the Department of Mathematics. By then he had already completed much of the work in reliability for which he is internationally known. A lot of that work was done while he was employed by Boeing along with a group of other distinguished statistical scientists researching reliability.
He has and continues to publish extensively, and he invented, with Professor Ingram Olkin, the well-known Marshall–Olkin exponential distribution. Among other things, their fruitful collaboration yielded a text on majorization called "Inequalities: Theory of Majorization and Its Applications," which has become a much-cited classic.
He has been widely recognized outside of UBC for his scholarly achievements. At UBC, Professor Marshall was instrumental in establishing the Department more than a decade ago and served as its Acting Head in the first year of its existence. His active research career continues, and he is now a Professor Emeritus in the Department.
The award, established in 1994, is supported by the Statistics Fund for Excellence.
This award is usually announced in March or April Year+1.