In Memoriam

Christopher A. Robertson

UCR Professor Emeritus of Statistics
(1942 - 2019)

Christopher Robertson, a professor emeritus of statistics who taught at UC Riverside for over three decades, passed away June 15. He was 77.

Robertson was born in London, England and received his bachelor of arts in mathematics from Trinity College, University of Cambridge.

He began his career as a staff scientist with the British Coal Utilisation Research Association working with physicist, chemists, and chemical engineers on math and statistical problems resulting from their work. He was recruited as a lecturer in mathematical statistics at the University of Exeter where he received his doctorate in mathematics in 1969.

He joined UC Riverside as a visiting professor in 1970 and became a tenured faculty member in 1976 for a 32-year long career.

Robertson’s interests included parametric estimation, distribution theory, probability (including probability models), and stochastic processes. He taught nearly all of the upper division courses, including courses aimed at statistics majors, as well as service courses primarily taken by engineering, computer science, and premed students.

For more than two decades, Professor Robertson was an undergraduate and graduate student advisor and served on a number of departmental, college, and campus committees.

He retired from UC Riverside in 2003.

Robertson is survived by his wife Alix Robertson.