For his significant contribution to academia as well as industry Prof Niël le Roux, emeritus professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at Stellenbosch University (SU) was recently honoured with the South African Statistical Association's Thought Leader award for 2015 (sponsored by SAS).

In their nomination letter, Prof Sugnet Lubbe from the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Cape Town and Prof Wille Conradie of the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at SU said that Prof le Roux has made a phenomenal impact on the South African statistical community across a wide range of activities over the past 40 years.

"Further to this, Prof le Roux made an exceptional impact on the lives of many South African statisticians who had the privilege to be his students or colleagues with his dependable wise advice on statistics issues and life in general."

Prof Le Roux was surprised by the accolade.

"I'm grateful that I have been able to share the wonders of statistics with other students of the subject and that I might have inspired some."

Prof Le Roux's association with SU started 50 years ago when he was appointed as a junior lecturer in the Department of Psychology in 1966.

Two undergraduate degrees, three honours degrees, three master's degrees and a doctorate later he "retired" as professor in the Department of Statistics, also at SU, in 2004. However, he was immediately appointed on contract with full teaching and research responsibilities.

In 2009 he was contracted as part-time lecturer to teach and supervise postgraduate students and to continue with research. This contract was extended in 2016.

"Statistics is a hobby and it is easy to be excited about something you love. I'm grateful for good health and the wonderful relationships I have developed with other statisticians. Without this I wouldn't have been able to keep on postponing my retirement.

"I have to express my thanks and appreciation to SU for all the opportunities I've received. I've especially enjoyed the past 20 years during which my research became focused on the graphical representations of multivariate data."

Prof Le Roux was recently awarded a B rating by the National Research Foundation (NRF), which means he is not only regarded as an established researcher in his field but also enjoys considerable international recognition by his peers.

Prof Paul Mostert of the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at SU emphasised that Prof Le Roux has contributed enormously to academia, industry and overall knowledge generation.

In the past 10 years (since his retirement), Prof le Roux has published two books and 36 papers in peer-reviewed journals, presented workshops locally and abroad, delivered seven invited conference papers at international conferences and participated in more than 30 conferences nationally and internationally.

"Many students have benefitted from his knowledge," added Prof Mostert.

The leading contribution made by Prof le Roux in education and promoting the field of statistics was acknowledged by SU with the Rector's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1994 (one of the first group of 10 lecturers to receive the award) and the Rector's Award for Excellence in Research in 2005.

In the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science Prof Le Roux was instrumental in the development of the first structured Master's programme in Mathematical Statistics and Statistics. In terms of postgraduate supervision, Prof Le Roux has been sole supervisor for three PhD dissertations and 27 Master's dissertations. He also co-supervised several dissertations in Psychology, Geography and Business Science. Currently, he is supervising one Master's and three PhD dissertations.

As researcher, Prof Le Roux's most significant contribution has been as principal investigator of a Biplot project funded by the NRF since 2007 which involves national and international researchers in the field of multivariate graphical representations. The developments in biplot methodology have been implemented in industry with great success.