The Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Queen's University is pleased to host a celebration of Florence Nightingale Day on April 15, 2026. The event is sponsored by Canadian Institute of Statistical Science (CANSSI).  The event celebrates the legacy of Florence Nightingale with high school students through a full day of faculty-organized activities. The program features hands-on activities, interactive games, panels of professional speakers, networking opportunities, and a lunch.

The event aims to promote gender diversity in statistics and data science by encouraging, inspiring, and empowering students from genders that are currently underrepresented in these fields.

Organizing Committee 

• Devon Lin, Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Queen's University

• Wenyu Jiang, Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Queen's University

• Yanglei Song, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Queen's University 

• Jeananne Vickery, Department Manager, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Queen's University

Panelists 

  Wei Tu, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University 

About the day

Florence Nightingale Day celebrates the enduring legacy of Florence Nightingale, a visionary who transformed healthcare not only through compassion, but through data. Long before “data science” had a name, Nightingale used rigorous data collection, statistical reasoning, and innovative visualizations to reveal preventable causes of death—and to persuade policymakers to act.

Today, Florence Nightingale Day is a powerful reminder that data, when used responsibly and creatively, can change the world. From improving public health and guiding evidence-based policy to advancing machine learning and AI, modern data science continues the mission Nightingale began: turning information into insight, and insight into impact.

We mark this day to inspire students, researchers, and practitioners to see data science as more than algorithms and code. It is a human-centered discipline—one that blends statistics, computation, and domain knowledge to solve real problems, promote equity, and improve lives.

Join us in celebrating Florence Nightingale Day by recognizing the past, embracing the present, and shaping the future of data-driven discovery.