11 Facts About Howell Tong

Howell Tong is a statistician who has made fundamental contributions to nonlinear time series analysis, semi-parametric statistics, non-parametric statistics, dimension reduction, model selection, likelihood-free statistics and other areas.

Howell Tong stands as the recognised innovator and authority in his subject, while remaining disarmingly direct and enthusiastic.

Howell Tong has made numerous novel contributions to nonparametric statistics, Markov chain modelling, reliability, non-stationary time series analysis and wavelets.

Howell Tong has been a distinguished visiting professor, Tsinghua University, China, since 2019, and a Chow distinguished visiting professor, Xiamen University, China, since 2025.

Howell Tong got his Bachelor of Science in 1966, Master of Science in 1969 and Doctor of Philosophy in 1972, all from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, where he studied under Maurice Priestley.

Howell Tong remained at UMIST first as a lecturer and then as a senior lecturer.

Howell Tong was the first ethnic Chinese to hold such a chair professorship in the UK, thus opening the door for other ethnic Chinese statisticians.

From 1999 to September 2009, Howell Tong was chair professor of statistics at the London School of Economics and founded the Centre for the Analysis of Time Series.

Between 1997 and 2004, Howell Tong was concurrently chair professor of statistics, founding dean of the graduate school and later pro-vice chancellor, University of Hong Kong.

Howell Tong was elected a member of the International Statistical Institute in 1983.

Howell Tong was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 1993, an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, England in 1999, and a Foreign Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in 2000.