He was born a statistical anomaly and became a top Australian statistician – and now Professor Terry O’Neill has used the findings from one of his own studies to validate his retirement.
The foundation Executive Dean of the Bond Business School is stepping down after a decade of service at Bond University.
He has spent more than 50 years analysing data impenetrable to most people, including stints at the Australian National University and Stanford University.
O’Neill has about 100 studies to his name, including ones that shaped Australian medical guidelines for breast cancer screening, and demonstrated how to extract useful insights from car crash data.
But it was a 2001 paper Estimating cohort health expectancies from cross-sectional surveys of disability that got him thinking about his own mortality.
“We were looking at the increase in life expectancy and wondered, how much of that extra time is enjoyable?” he says.
“The conclusion was that for most of those later years, you’re going to be pretty miserable.
“It was not a very uplifting outcome but it’s a realistic assessment of what happens.”
A 72-year-old man can only ski for so long, and this one is going to get his turns in on the slopes of Japan while he still can.
O’Neill was born among two sets of twins, with the odds of his mother conceiving them being 1 in 3136 in the days before IVF.
A talented student and competitive lifesaver for the Grange Surf Life Saving Club in Adelaide, he studied science at Adelaide University, specialising in statistics.
“I thought it was fascinating to see what people could do with data,” he says. “It was a real revelation to me.”
A data analysis leader
O’Neill went to Stanford University on a CSIRO scholarship and completed his PhD under the tutelage of Prof Brad Efron, known for developing the Bootstrap Method, a fundamental tool in statistical analysis.
He would return to Stanford many times during his career, including as a Fulbright Scholar, but it was at the Australian National University that O’Neill would spend the bulk of his career, becoming the inaugural Head of Department of Statistics & Econometrics.
When one of his former ANU colleagues Professor Tim Brailsford – by now the Vice Chancellor and President of Bond University – asked him to move north in the midst of a Canberra winter, he didn’t hesitate.
O’Neill launched Queensland’s first actuarial science program and established the Centre for Data Analytics at Bond University.
After contemplating the future of his faculty and industry, O’Neill has urged business students to focus on interpersonal skills.
“It’s evident that AI will play an increasingly significant role but deals will still involve face-to-face negotiation,” he says.
“Skills like communication, strategy, and planning are becoming more crucial than ever in the professional world.”
Joining him in retirement is his wife and occasional research partner Professor Helen O’Neill, who is also stepping down as Director of the Clem Jones Centre for Regenerative Medicine at Bond University.
They plan to spend more time with family and travelling.
“I like skiing but that begs the calculation of, how many more good years do I have left?” O’Neill says.
Bond University bestowed the title of Professor Emeritus upon Prof O’Neill in recognition of his service.
