Henry Wynn

Henry Philip Wynn (19 February 1945 – 2 November 2024) was a British statistician. He was known for contributions to optimal experimental design, including the algorithm for constructing D-optimum experimental designs now known as the Wynn–Fedorov algorithm, and for work on the design and analysis of computer experiments. He held academic posts at Imperial College London, City, University of London, the University of Warwick and the London School of Economics (LSE), and served as President of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) in 1977–78.

Early life and education Wynn was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, on 19 February 1945. His father, Arthur Wynn, was director of the Safety in Mines Research Establishment, and his mother, Margaret Wynn, was a writer on social policy.

After the family moved to London, Wynn was educated at Westminster School. He gained a BA in mathematics from St Catherine's College, Oxford, in 1967, and completed a PhD in mathematical statistics at Imperial College London.

Career After completing his PhD, Wynn worked for the Government Statistical Service from 1971 to 1972. He then returned to Imperial College London, where he was a lecturer and later reader in statistics.

In 1995 he moved to the University of Warwick, where he was founding director of the Risk Initiative and Statistical Consultancy Unit. He was a full-time member of the LSE Department of Statistics from 2003 to 2011 and remained active there after retirement. His subsequent work further developed the theory and construction of D-optimum designs.

Wynn was also one of the authors of the influential 1989 paper "Design and Analysis of Computer Experiments", with Jerome Sacks, William J. Welch and Toby J. Mitchell. The paper proposed modelling deterministic computer-code output as a realisation of a stochastic process, providing a statistical basis for the design and analysis of expensive computer experiments.

Other areas of his work included dynamical search, algebraic statistics, maximum entropy sampling, uncertainty quantification and applications in engineering and risk analysis.

Honours and awards Wynn was awarded the Guy Medal in Silver by the Royal Statistical Society in 1982. He received the George Box Medal from ENBIS in 2011. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. He also held an Emeritus Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust.

Selected publications