The last 100 years have seen massive developments in statistical methods and theory. These have been driven by the challenges of ever-widening fields of application and by the rapid evolution in techniques of measurement, data capture and analysis and of the balance between these. The current challenges raised by having very large amounts of data range from particle- and astrophysics to genetics to many aspects of public affairs and certainly call for new statistical methods, But do they dramatically change the basic principles of statistical thinking?

Keywords: Principles of statiistical thinking; Large sets of data; History of statistical analysis

Biography: Professor David Cox has worked in a number of areas in theoretical and applied statistics. He is currently an Honorary Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford and a member of Department of Statistics, University of Oxford.