Belz lecture

Maurice Belz (1897–1975)

Maurice Henry Belz was born on 1 February 1897 at Auburn, Sydney, eleventh child of John William Belz, a carpenter from Germany, and his Australian-born wife Elizabeth Esther, née Saunders. Educated at Sydney Boys' High School and the University of Sydney, Maurice studied arts and engineering before graduating (BSc, 1918) with the John Coutts scholarship and the university medal in mathematics. In 1920 he received a Barker graduate travelling scholarship and proceeded to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (MSc, 1922). He worked at the Cavendish Laboratory under Sir Ernest (Lord) Rutherford.

In 1923 Belz took up a lectureship in mathematics at the University of Melbourne. In 1928 he was promoted to senior lecturer and in 1929 introduced a course in the theory of statistics. Awarded a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in 1932, he left to undertake research at the London School of Economics and the University of Oslo into the application of mathematics to economics. At Professor (Sir) Douglas Copland's invitation, in 1937 he began teaching mathematical economics in the faculty of commerce at Melbourne and published with Professor John Michell The Elements of Mathematical Analysis (London). In 1947 he was a Carnegie fellow at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.

When the University of Melbourne, at Belz's instigation, formed the first autonomous department of statistics in Australia in 1948, he became its head, first as an associate-professor of mathematical statistics and in 1955-63 as professor.

Many of the initial generation of Australia's professional statisticians were either trained or taught in Belz's department. He established a course for graduates from science and industry and encouraged university researchers and industrial organizations to seek statistical assistance from departmental staff. During visits to Britain (1961, 1964 and 1970-72) he worked both as a consultant and as a lecturer to executives in British Petroleum Co. Ltd in London, and prepared Statistical Methods for the Process Industries (London, 1973) for publication.

Elected a member (1948) of the International Statistical Institute, he was made an honorary life member of the Statistical Society of Australia (1970) and of the Australian Society for Operations Research.

Belz was president (1944-70) of the French-Australian Association of Victoria and was appointed to the Légion d'honneur in 1954. Fond of the theatre, he was foundation president (1939) of the graduate drama club, the Tin Alley Players. Belz died on 28 March 1975 in Parkville.

This biography has been adapted from an article written by Betty Laby that was published in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 13, 1993 and online in 2006.