Little did the University of Otago Biostatistics Centre director and research associate professor know, her colleagues had nominated her for the New Zealand Statistical Association’s 2025 Campbell Award.
"I sat at the dinner thinking ‘I’ll never be in line for one of these awards’, but my colleagues nominated me without my knowledge.
"I was completely blindsided by it.
"There’s just no way I expected to get that award. And it’s a national award ...
"So, yep, zero for a start, but now I’m thinking 100%.
"It’s a real career highlight for me."
The award recognises her sustained contribution to the promotion and development of statistics in New Zealand.
"I’ve been involved in a lot of research, but it also recognises that I’ve spent a lot of time trying to bring the biostatistician community together.
"Biostatisticians can end up being quite isolated because they work in different areas — they don’t often work together, but they have a common interest.
"So I’ve tried to build a network of biostatisticians."
Assoc Prof Cameron has worked as a statistician in various forms for more than 35 years.
She started in the University of Otago mathematics and statistics department, lecturing in statistics, and went on to do consulting work on "ecology and conservation-type problems".
But for the past 15 years she has been working with the university’s biostatistics team.
Biostatisticians apply statistical and mathematical methods to analyse data in biology, medicine and public health and play a critical role in clinical trials, study design and disease modelling.
They also ensure data validity, interpret findings and inform healthcare policies.
"For example, if we wanted to ask a group of people a question about their health, I would guide the decisions about who to approach, how many people to approach, honing the questionnaire and how to collect the data.
"I would analyse the resulting data and provide the initial interpretation of the results.
"What I love about statistics is that you can work on a wide range of different problems.
"So in the health sciences division, I can work with bioarchaeologists or clinicians or pharmacists or the whole public health department."
The award citation said Assoc Prof Cameron was an outstanding researcher, with many highly cited publications in high-impact journals.
She has also contributed significantly to building a community of biostatisticians in New Zealand and internationally.
Otago Biostatistics Centre colleague Assoc Prof Andrew Gray said whenever there was work to be done to make biostatistics an even better career, Assoc Prof Cameron was "leading or contributing to it".
