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.

NameNationalityBirthDeathContributionReferences
Al-KindiAbassid Caliphate801873Developed the first code breaking algorithm based on frequency analysis. He wrote a book entitled "Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages", containing detailed discussions on statistics[1]
Graunt, JohnEnglish16201674Pioneer of demography who produced the first life table[2]
Bayes, ThomasEnglish17021761Developed the interpretation of probability now known as Bayesian probability[3]
Laplace, Pierre-SimonFrench17491827Co-invented Bayesian statistics. Invented exponential families (Laplace transform), conjugate prior distributions, asymptotic analysis of estimators (including negligibility of regular priors). Used maximum-likelihood and posterior-mode estimation and considered (robust) loss functions
Playfair, WilliamScottish17591823Pioneer of statistical graphics
Carl Friedrich GaussGerman17771855Invented least squares estimation methods (with Legendre). Used loss functions and maximum-likelihood estimation
Quetelet, AdolpheBelgian17961874Pioneered the use of probability and statistics in the social sciences
Nightingale, FlorenceEnglish18201910Applied statistical analysis to health problems, contributing to the establishment of epidemiology and public health practice. Developed statistical graphics especially for mobilizing public opinion. First female member of the Royal Statistical Society.
Galton, FrancisEnglish18221911Invented the concepts of standard deviation, correlation, regression[4][5]
Thiele, Thorvald N.Danish18381910Introduced cumulants and the term "likelihood". Introduced a Kalman filter in time-series
Peirce, Charles SandersAmerican18391914Formulated modern statistics in "Illustrations of the Logic of Science" (1877–1878) and "A Theory of Probable Inference" (1883). With a repeated measures design, introduced blinded, controlled randomized experiments (before Fisher). Invented optimal design for experiments on gravity, in which he "corrected the means". He used correlation, smoothing, and improved the treatment of outliers. Introduced terms "confidence" and "likelihood" (before Neyman and Fisher). While largely a frequentist, Peirce's possible world semantics introduced the "propensity" theory of probability. See the historical books of Stephen Stigler
Edgeworth, Francis YsidroIrish18451926Revived exponential families (Laplace transforms) in statistics. Extended Laplace's (asymptotic) theory of maximum-likelihood estimation. Introduced basic results on information, which were extended and popularized by R. A. Fisher
Pearson, KarlEnglish18571936Numerous innovations, including the development of the Pearson chi-squared test and the Pearson correlation. Founded the Biometrical Society and Biometrika, the first journal of mathematical statistics and biometry[6][7][8][9]
Spearman, CharlesEnglish18631945Extended the Pearson correlation coefficient to the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient[10]
Gosset, William Sealy (known as "Student")English18761937Discovered the Student t distribution and invented the Student's t-test[11]
Anderson, Oskar Johann Viktor (also known as Anderson, Oskar Nikolaevich)Russian, Bulgarian, German18871960A leading representative of the so-called Continental School of statistics. Invented the variate difference method for analyzing time series at the same time but independently from Gosset. A pioneer of random sampling in demographics and of quantitative methods applied to socio-economic sciences.[12][13][14][15]
Fisher, RonaldEnglish18901962Wrote the textbooks and articles that defined the academic discipline of statistics, inspiring the creation of statistics departments at universities throughout the world. Systematized previous results with informative terminology, substantially improving previous results with mathematical analysis (and claims). Developed the analysis of variance, clarified the method of maximum likelihood (without the uniform priors appearing in some previous versions), invented the concept of sufficient statistics, developed Edgeworth's use of exponential families and information, introducing observed Fisher information, and many theoretical concepts and practical methods, particularly for the design of experiments[16][17][18]
Bonferroni, Carlo EmilioItalian18921960Invented the Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons
Wilcoxon, FrankIrish-American18921965Invented two statistical tests: Wilcoxon rank-sum test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test
Neyman, JerzyPolish-American18941981Discovered the confidence interval and co-developed the Neyman–Pearson lemma[19]
Deming, W. EdwardsAmerican19001993Developed methods for statistical quality control[20]
Pearson, EgonEnglish18951980Co-developed the Neyman–Pearson lemma of statistical hypothesis testing[21]
Finetti, Bruno deItalian19061985Pioneer of the "operational subjective" conception of probability. Used this as the basis for exposition of the Bayesian method of statistical analysis. Developed the representation theorem for exchangeable random variables showing that they are the basis of the IID model in statistics.
Kendall, MauriceEnglish19071983Co-developed methods for assessing statistical randomness; invented Kendall tau rank correlation coefficient
Tukey, JohnAmerican19152000Jointly popularized Fast Fourier transformation, pioneer of exploratory data analysis and graphical presentation of data, developed the jackknife for variance estimation, invented the box plot.[22]
Blackwell, DavidAmerican19192010Co-developed Rao-Blackwell theorem and wrote one of the first Bayesian textbooks, Basic Statistics.[23]
Rao, Calyampudi RadhakrishnaIndian1920Co-developed Cramér–Rao bound and Rao–Blackwell theorem, invented MINQUE method of variance component estimation.[24][25]
Cox, DavidEnglish1924Developed the proportional hazards model for the analysis of survival data[26]
Efron, BradleyAmerican1938Invented the bootstrap resampling technique for deriving an empirical distribution of an estimate of a model parameter[27]

Founders of departments of statistics

The role of a department of statistics is discussed in a 1949 article by Harold Hotelling, which helped to spur the creation of many departments of statistics.[28]

YearCountryUniversityFounderReferences
1911EnglandUniversity College LondonPearson, Karl[7]
1918United StatesDepartment of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthPearl, Raymond[29]
~1931IndiaIndian Statistical InstitutePrasanta Chandra Mahalanobis[30]
~1931United StatesColumbia UniversityHotelling, Harold[31]
1933USAIowa State UniversitySnedecor, George W.[32][33]
1941USANorth Carolina State UniversityCox, Gertrude[34]
1942SwedenUppsala UniversityWold, Herman[35]
1947EnglandUniversity of ManchesterBartlett, M. S.[36][37]
1947USADepartment of Biometry and Statistics, Cornell UniversityFederer, Walter T.[38][39][40]
1948USAStanford University —[41]
1948IndiaUniversity of MumbaiM. C. Chakrabarti[42]
1949USAUniversity of MichiganClarence Velz[43]
1949USAUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill —[44]
1949USAUniversity of Chicago —[45]
1949USAVirginia TechBoyd Harshbarger[46]
1953EnglandCambridge University, Statistics LabWishart, John[47]
1953IndiaUniversity of PuneV. S. Huzurbazar[48]
1955USAUniversity of California, BerkeleyNeyman, Jerzy[49]
1957USAHarvard UniversityCochran, W. G.
Mosteller, Frederick		[50][51]
1957AustraliaUniversity of SydneyLancaster, H.O.[52]
1962USATexas A&M UniversityHartley, Herman Otto[53]
1963USAYale UniversityAnscombe, Francis[54][55]
1964BangladeshInstitute of Statistical Research and TrainingHussain, Q.M.[56]
1965USAPrinceton UniversityTukey, John W[57][58]
1965USAUniversity of IowaHogg, Robert V.[59]
1966ScotlandUniversity of GlasgowAitchison, John
Silvey, David		[60]
1973USAThe Ohio State UniversityWhitney, D. Ransom[61]
1979CanadaUniversity of Toronto —[62]
1981IndiaVidyasagar UniversityAnil Kumar Gain[63]
1982Hong KongChinese University of Hong KongHowell Tong[64]
1984IndiaBanaras Hindu UniversitySingh, S.N.
1988EnglandUniversity of OxfordHinkley, D. V.[65]
1996USAUniversity of Virginia School of MedicineHarrell, Frank E.[66]

See also

References
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  3. "Thomas Bayes". Figures from the History of Probability and Statistics. University of Southampton.
  4. "Francis Galton". Figures from the History of Probability and Statistics. University of Southampton.
  5. "Sir Francis Galton F.R.S: 1822–1911".
  6. "Pearson, Karl". Statisticians in History. American Statistical Association.
  7. "Karl Pearson (1857 - 1936)". Department of Statistical Science – University College London. Archived from the original on 25 September 2008.
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  9. John Aldrich (2008). "Karl Pearson: A Reader's Guide". University of Southampton.
  10. Williams, RH, Zimmerman, DW, Zumbo, BD & Ross, D (2003). "Charles Spearman: British Behavioral Scientist". Human Nature Review. 3: 114–118.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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  13. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. (May 2000), "Oskar Johann Viktor Anderson", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.
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