It is my pleasure to introduce Professor Larry Hedges, whose work enables researchers around the world to take an evidence-based approach to improving education, allowing facts to replace political and personal bias in policy debates.

Professor Hedges, Chairman of the Department of Statistics at Northwestern University in Chicago, is perhaps one of the most accomplished applied statisticians in the world. He has developed statistical methods for meta-analysis in social, medical and biological sciences and has found innovative ways of synthesizing research findings across studies.

While statistics may not sound exciting to everyone, this work is truly ground-breaking. Everyone agrees that changes in education are needed, but there is no agreement on how these changes should be made. Professor Hedges’ work allows for changes in education to be based on scientific evidence, taking ideology and subjectivity out of the debate.

Moreover, Professor Hedges’ commitment to training research professionals is truly remarkable. By providing training on designing, conducting and analysing statistical research, he is helping ensure the spread of his unique science-based approach, inspiring the future generations of educational researchers.

Professor Hedges’ work is particularly valuable in that it is widely applicable, replicable and scalable. It can be adopted anywhere in the world to bring this evidence-based approach to improving education to meet future needs.

I would like to once again congratulate Professor Hedges and all the other Yidan Prize nominees on the tremendously important work they’re carrying out. And I am certain that the best is yet to come.