Summary
Ivan Fellegi was appointed Chief Statistician of Canada in 1985 and has been leading since that time what is ranked by The Economist as the best statistical office in the world. He has served the Agency since 1957 in positions of increasing responsibility. He has chaired the Conference of European Statisticians of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) (1993-97). He has been President of a number of statistical bodies including the International Statistical Institute, the International Association of Survey Statisticians, and the Statistical Society of Canada.
In 1978 he was seconded to the Commission on the Reorganization of the US Statistical System, established by President Carter. He has been the Chairman of the Board of Governors of Carleton University (1995-97), which conferred upon him its first Ph.D. in 1961, and is Vice Chairman of the Board of the Canadian Institute of Health Information.
Fellegi holds the Order of Canada, the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Public Service of Canada, the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic, the Career Achievement Award of the Canadian Policy Research Initiative, La Médaille de la ville de Paris, Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, an Honorary Doctorate from Université de Montréal, an Honorary Doctorate from Université du Québec (Institut national de la recherche scientifique), an Honorary Doctorate of Law from Simon Fraser University, an Honorary Doctorate of Law from McMaster University and an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Carleton University.
He is an Honorary Member of the International Statistical Institute and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Also in 1997, he was awarded the Gold Medal by the Statistical Society of Canada and awarded the Robert Schuman medal by the European Community. He has published extensively on statistical methods, on the social and economic applications of statistics and on the successful management of statistical agencies.