Founders of statistics

Statistics is the theory and application of mathematics to the scientific method including hypothesis generation, experimental design, sampling, data collection, data summarization, estimation, prediction and inference from those results to the population from which the experimental sample was drawn. This article lists statisticians who have been instrumental in the development of theoretical and applied statistics.

Founders of statistics

* Thomas Bayes (English, 1702–1761)
** Developed the interpretation of probability now known as Bayes theorem [cite web | url = http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/Figures.htm#ba | work = Figures from the History of Probability and Statistics | title = Thomas Bayes | publisher = University of Southampton | accessdate= ]

* Carl Friedrich Gauss (German, 1777–1855)
** Invented least squares estimation methods

* Adolphe Quetelet (Belgian, 1796–1874)
** Pioneered the use of probability and statistics in the social sciences

* Francis Galton (English, 1822–1911)
** Invented the concepts of standard deviation, correlation, regression [cite web | url = http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/Figures.htm#gal | work = Figures from the History of Probability and Statistics | title = Francis Galton | publisher = University of Southampton | accessdate= ] [cite web | url = http://galton.org/ | title = Sir Francis Galton F.R.S: 1822–1911 | accessdate= ]

* Karl Pearson (English, 1857–1936)
** Numerous innovations, including the development of the Pearson chi-squared test and the Pearson correlation [cite web | url = http://www.amstat.org/about/statisticians/index.cfm?fuseaction=biosinfo&BioID=18 | title = Pearson, Karl | publisher = American Statistical Association | work = Statisticians in History | accessdate= ] cite web | year = | title = Karl Pearson (1857-1936) | publisher = Department of Statistical Science - University College London | url = http://www.ucl.ac.uk/stats/department/pearson.html] [cite web | year = 2003 | title = Karl Pearson | publisher = School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews | url = http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/%7Ehistory/Biographies/Pearson.html | accessdate= ] [cite web | year = 2008 | title = Karl Pearson: A Reader’s Guide | author = John Aldrich | publisher = University of Southampton | url = http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/kpreader.htm | accessdate= ]

* Charles Spearman (English, 1863–1945)
** Extended the Pearson correlation coefficient to the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient [cite journal | year = 2003 | title = Charles Spearman: British Behavioral Scientist | journal = Human Nature Review. | volume = 3 | pages = 114–118 | url = http://human-nature.com/nibbs/03/spearman.html | author = Williams, RH, Zimmerman, DW, Zumbo, BD & Ross, D]

* William Sealy Gosset (known as "Student") (English, 1876–1937)
** Discovered the Student t distribution and invented the Student's t-test [cite web | url = http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/Figures.htm#stu | work = Figures from the History of Probability and Statistics | title = William Sealy Gosset | publisher = University of Southampton | accessdate= ]

* Waloddi Weibull (Swedish, 1887–1979)
** Developed the Weibull distribution

* Ronald A. Fisher (English, 1890–1962)
** Invented the analysis of variance, [cite web | url = http://www.amstat.org/about/statisticians/index.cfm?fuseaction=biosinfo&BioID=16 | title = Fisher, R.A. | publisher = American Statistical Association | work = Statisticians in History |accessdate= ] [cite web | url = http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/Figures.htm#fis | work = Figures from the History of Probability and Statistics | title = R.A. Fisher | publisher = University of Southampton] [cite web | url = http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/fisherguide/rafreader.htm | title = A Guide to R. A. Fisher | accessdate= ] introduced the method of maximum likelihood, the concept of sufficient statistics, Fisher information, and many theoretical concepts now a standard part of the basic curriculum

* Carlo Emilio Bonferroni (Italian, 1892–1960)
** Invented the Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons

* Frank Wilcoxon (Irish, American, 1892–1965)
** Invented two statistical tests: Wilcoxon rank-sum test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test

* Jerzy Neyman (Polish, American, 1894–1981)
** Discovered the confidence interval and co-developed the Neyman-Pearson lemma [cite web | url = http://www.amstat.org/about/statisticians/index.cfm?fuseaction=biosinfo&BioID=11 | title = Neyman, Jerzy | publisher = American Statistical Association | work = Statisticians in History | accessdate= ]

* W. Edwards Deming (American, 1900–1993)
** Developed methods for statistical quality control [cite web | url = http://www.amstat.org/about/statisticians/index.cfm?fuseaction=biosinfo&BioID=4 | title = Deming, W. Edwards| publisher = American Statistical Association | work = Statisticians in History | accessdate= ]

* Egon Pearson (English, 1895–1980)
** Co-developed the Neyman-Pearson lemma of statistical hypothesis testing [cite web | url = http://www.amstat.org/about/statisticians/index.cfm?fuseaction=biosinfo&BioID=24 | title = Pearson, Egon S.| publisher = American Statistical Association | work = Statisticians in History | accessdate= ]

* Maurice Kendall (English, 1907–1983)
** Co-developed methods for assessing statistical randomness; invented Kendall tau rank correlation coefficient

* John Wilder Tukey (American, 1915–2000)
** Jointly popularized Fast Fourier transformation, pioneer of exploratory data analysis and graphical presentation of data, developed the jackknife for variance estimation, invented the box plot. [cite journal | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.2003.0032 | url = http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/541x625k2vx6837v/fulltext.pdf | format = pdf | title = John Wilder Tukey. 16 June 1915 - 26 July 2000 | year = 2003 | author = Mccullagh, Peter | journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (1955-2000) | volume = 49 | pages = 537]

* Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao (Indian, 1920–)
**Co-developed Cramér-Rao bound and Rao-Blackwell theorem, invented MINQUE method of variance component estimation. [cite journal | doi = 10.1214/ss/1177013438 | title = A Conversation with C. R. Rao | year = 1987 | author = Degroot, Morris H. | journal = Statistical Science | volume = 2 | pages = 53] [citation | url = http://www.amstat.org/about/statisticians/index.cfm?fuseaction=biosinfo&BioID=13 | title = Rao, Calyampudi R| publisher = American Statistical Association |work = Statisticians in History | accessdate= ]

*David Cox (English, 1924–)
** Developed the proportional hazards model for the analysis of survival data [cite book | author = Wermuth, Nanny; Anthony C. Davison; Dodge, Yadolah | title = Celebrating Statistics: Papers in honour of Sir David Cox on his 80th birthday (Oxford Statistical Science Series) | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2005 | isbn = 0-19-856654-9 | oclc = 185035518 228140765 60837753 62088309 ]

*Bradley Efron (American, 1938–)
**Invented the bootstrap resampling technique for deriving an empirical distribution of an estimate of a model parameter [cite journal | doi = 10.1214/ss/1063994967 | title = Introduction to the Silver Anniversary of the Bootstrap | year = 2003 | author = Casella, George | journal = Statistical Science | volume = 18 | pages = 133]

Founders of Departments of Statistics

See also

*List of statisticians
*History of statistics
*Timeline of probability and statistics
*Fathers of scientific fields

References

External links

*cite web | url = http://www.amstat.org/about/statisticians/index.cfm | title = Statisticians in History| publisher = American Statistical Association
*cite web | url = http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/maths/histstat/lifework.htm | title = Life and Work of Statisticians | publisher = Department of Mathematics, University of York
*cite web | url = http://www.economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/Figures.htm | title = Figures from the History of Probability and Statistics | author = John Aldrich | publisher = University of Southampton
*cite web | url = http://www.AgnesScott.edu/lriddle/women/women.htm | title = Biographies of Women Mathematicians | author = Lawrence H. Riddle | publisher = Agnes Scott College