Joseph Mark Gani, 1924–2016 Free

Joe Gani, as he was universally known, died on April 12th, 2016, in Canberra at age 91 years.

He will be remembered by Fellows of the Royal Statistical Society especially for his years (1965–1974) in Sheffield, during which time it became and remains the home of his creation, the Applied Probability Trust. This period was associated with the creation of the strong Manchester–Sheffield School of Probability and Statistics, based on the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester, and strong Australian input. Joe's greatest academic love was applied probability. Because of his editorial and organizational activity, this became an internationally recognized and prestigious area of mathematical activity.

He was born in Cairo, Egypt, on December 15th, 1924. His grandparents were from western Greece and came to Egypt in about 1891. The family, which was Jewish, prospered. Both Joe's parents were born in Cairo, where he was brought up till 9 years of age.

The initial language at home was Italian, and then French, and his initial schooling in Cairo was in French schools. The years 1932–1937 were spent in Kobe, Japan, near where he attended the Canadian Academy, in which the language of instruction was English. Returning to Cairo in 1937, Joe attended the English School as a day pupil and later became a teacher there.

From 1945 to 1948 Joe was at Imperial College, London, initially as an undergraduate.

Here he was influenced in the direction of statistics by Emlyn Lloyd and George Barnard, and he completed the Diploma of Imperial College under Barnard's supervision in 1948. After London Joe moved to Australia with his mother and siblings, working in the Mathematics Department at the University of Melbourne till the end of 1950. He then returned to Britain for a year, teaching at Birkbeck College. A period of about 18 months back in Australia without academic employ was followed by a job at the University of Western Australia in the Department of Larry Blakers, who in subsequent years, by allowing generous periods of leave, helped Joe's career to flourish.

During this time Joe took up an Australian Commonwealth Postgraduate Scholarship to do a doctorate under P. A. P. (Pat) Moran, Head of the Statistics Department at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University (ANU), Canberra. After an unproductive initial period, Pat Moran asked him to read a 1946 paper by H. R. Pitt published in the Journal of the London Mathematical Society. This launched Joe on his research career, his first paper appearing in Biometrika in 1955. Joe's lines of research then followed Pat's work in two directions: dams and reservoirs, and inference for Markov chains.

In Moran's department Joe met E. J. (Ted) Hannan, also a doctoral student there. Their very close friendship ended only with Ted's death in January 1994. During the ANU years Joe met his wife to be, Ruth Stephens, also a scientist who later focused her research on human genetics. They married in September 1955, at University House, ANU.

After Joe's receiving his doctorate in 1955, he and Ruth were in Manchester, where under the influence of Maurice Bartlett Joe became interested in the theory of epidemics, which formed a large part of his subsequent research activity. Returning to Western Australia, in the period to 1960 Joe built up a strong department, which was afterwards headed by Uma Prabhu. Under Blakers's influence, Joe developed a strong interest in the development of mathematics in Australia and was one of the founding members, with Blakers, of the Australian Mathematical Society in 1956.

On striking evidence of Joe's activity in Western Australia, Pat Moran offered him a job as Senior Fellow at the ANU, where, on account of the presence on the academic staff of Joe Moyal, Geof Watson and Ted Hannan (at the nearby School of General Studies), the discipline of mathematical statistics in its broad sense flourished and began to attract the cream of Australian students in the area, including C. C. (Chris) Heyde.

When it became clear to Joe that there was insufficient support for setting up his dream child, the Journal of Applied Probability, in Australia, Joe moved in 1964 to Michigan State University, East Lansing, where he was joined by Uma Prabhu, and then, almost immediately after Chris had finished his doctoral studies at the ANU, by Chris Heyde. The first issue of the journal appeared in 1964. Attempts to build up stochastic processes at Michigan State University encountered difficulties, and in 1965 Joe left to become Professor of Statistics at the University of Sheffield, followed by Chris Heyde, who became Joe's right-hand man at Sheffield–Manchester before Chris returned to the ANU in 1968 as Reader in Ted Hannan's Department.

From September 1974 to July 1981 Joe was back in Australia as Chief, Division of Mathematics and Statistics, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, where he was soon joined by Chris Heyde as Assistant Chief.

The Division was based in Canberra at that time and was located close to the ANU, boosting even more the statistical strength of the capital city, and Joe could renew his strong friendships there. The general consensus is that the years at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization went brilliantly, both in achieving what had been promised in service and research, and in a strong visitor programme which brought out celebrated statisticians such as David Cox and John Nelder.

From July 1981 Joe was Professor and Chairman at the University of Kentucky; then Professor and Chairman, Statistics and Applied Probability Program, University of California at Santa Barbara, from July 1985. He retired as Professor Emeritus in July 1994 and returned to Australia and became a Visiting Fellow at the ANU, located within the Stochastic Analysis Group, headed by Chris Heyde.

At the ANU Joe's weekday routine was as regular as clockwork. He drove in, arriving at about 8.45 a.m. Then e-mails were answered, followed by editorial duties on The Mathematical Scientist; then mentoring young people; then research, in particular epidemic modelling. He was very gratified by the response which his book with Daryl Daley, Epidemic Modelling: an Introduction, published in 1999, received.

Till the end Joe maintained his academic activism in Australia arising out of innate interest in the social function of mathematics and his strong interest in its history, manifested by his continuing role as Editor of The Mathematical Scientist, his role in many selection committees and indeed his own continuing research productivity, attenuated but still significant well into his 80s. At the ANU he formed a morning coffee club, which became an informal forum for people to exchange views on the world.

It was also a forum for Joe's Jewish jokes, for which he was famous.

His research interests in applied probability and statistics included the areas of theory of storage, queuing theory, epidemic modelling, biological models, statistical linguistics and inference on stochastic processes.

Sadly, Ruth, who had been an enormous source of support and influence on Joe, died in January 1997. Chris, who had been as close family to Joe, died in March 2008.

Joe earned a Doctorate of Science from London University in 1970. He was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1976, and elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in 1982. His many honours included two Doctorates of Science (Honoris Causa), and the Pitman Medal of the Statistical Society of Australia in 1994.

He was made a Member of the Order of Australia, on Australia Day, January 26th, 2000, and was awarded the Centenary Medal of the Australian Government in 2001.

He is survived by his children Jonathan, Miriam, Matthew and Sarah, their families and his brothers, Robert and Maurice.

A memorial service for Joe was held on April 22nd, 2016, in the Great Hall of University House, ANU. Joe would have appreciated the coincidence of the date with the beginning of Passover.

Joe was a visionary leader and dedicated social activist within the mathematical sphere, of indomitable physical and mental energy, who never faltered in making a decision. Something of a stormy petrel, he had a multiplicity of careers and activities, all executed with great efficiency, and in the face of frequently feeling ‘mucked about’. He helped a great many people in their academic careers. Applied probability and Australia owe him much. Of him it can truly be said ‘I did it my way’.

Eugene Seneta