Sir Richard Peto FRS (born 14 May 1943) is Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford.
He attended Taunton's School in Southampton and subsequently studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University.
His career has included important collaborations with Richard Doll beginning at the Medical Research Council Statistical Research Unit in London.
He set up the Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU) in Oxford in 1975 and is currently co-director.
He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1989 for his contributions to the development of meta-analysis. He is a leading expert on deaths related to tobacco use.
He was knighted for his services to epidemiology and to cancer prevention in 1999, and he received an honorary Doctor of Medical Sciences degree from Yale University in 2011.
His brother Julian Peto, with whom he has published work in mathematical statistics (e.g. on logrank test), is also a distinguished epidemiologist.
Peto's paradox is named after him.
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