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. Statisticians are skilled people who thus apply statistical methods. Hundreds of statisticians are notable. This article lists statisticians who have been especially instrumental in the development of theoretical and applied statistics.

Name Nationality Birth Death Contribution References
Al-Kindi Abbasid Caliphate 801 873 Developed 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, John English 1620 1674 Pioneer of demography who produced the first life table [2]
Bayes, Thomas English 1702 1761 Developed the interpretation of probability now known as Bayesian probability [3]
Laplace, Pierre-Simon French 1749 1827 Co-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, William Scottish 1759 1823 Pioneer of statistical graphics
Carl Friedrich Gauss German 1777 1855 Invented least squares estimation methods (with Legendre). Used loss functions and maximum-likelihood estimation
Quetelet, Adolphe Belgian 1796 1874 Pioneered the use of probability and statistics in the social sciences
Nightingale, Florence English 1820 1910 Applied 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, Francis English 1822 1911 Invented the concepts of standard deviation, correlation, regression [4][5]
Thiele, Thorvald N. Danish 1838 1910 Introduced cumulants and the term "likelihood". Introduced a Kalman filter in time-series
Peirce, Charles Sanders American 1839 1914 Formulated 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 Ysidro Irish 1845 1926 Revived 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, Karl English 1857 1936 Numerous 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, Charles English 1863 1945 Extended the Pearson correlation coefficient to the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient [10]
Gosset, William Sealy (known as "Student") English 1876 1937 Discovered the Student t distribution and invented the Student's t-test [11]
Anderson, Oskar Johann Viktor (also known as Anderson, Oskar Nikolaevich) Russian, Bulgarian, German 1887 1960 A 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, Ronald English 1890 1962 Wrote 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 Emilio Italian 1892 1960 Invented the Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons
Wilcoxon, Frank Irish-American 1892 1965 Invented two statistical tests: Wilcoxon rank-sum test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test
Neyman, Jerzy Polish-American 1894 1981 Discovered the confidence interval and co-developed the Neyman–Pearson lemma [19]
Deming, W. Edwards American 1900 1993 Developed methods for statistical quality control [20]
Pearson, Egon English 1895 1980 Co-developed the Neyman–Pearson lemma of statistical hypothesis testing [21]
de Finetti, Bruno Italian 1906 1985 Pioneer 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, Maurice English 1907 1983 Co-developed methods for assessing statistical randomness; invented Kendall tau rank correlation coefficient
Tukey, John 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. [22]
Blackwell, David American 1919 2010 Co-developed Rao-Blackwell theorem and wrote one of the first Bayesian textbooks, Basic Statistics. [23]
Rao, Calyampudi Radhakrishna Indian 1920 2023 Co-developed Cramér–Rao bound and Rao–Blackwell theorem, invented MINQUE method of variance component estimation. [24][25]
Cox, David English 1924 2022 Developed the proportional hazards model for the analysis of survival data [26]
Efron, Bradley American 1938 Invented the bootstrap resampling technique for deriving an empirical distribution of an estimate of a model parameter [27]
  1. ^ Singh, Simon (2000). The code book : the science of secrecy from ancient Egypt to quantum cryptography (1st Anchor Books ed.). New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0-385-49532-5.
  2. ^ Willcox, Walter (1938) The Founder of Statistics. Review of the International Statistical Institute 5(4):321–328.
  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. 30 November 2016.
  7. ^ "Karl Pearson (1857 - 1936)". Department of Statistical Science – University College London. Archived from the original on 25 September 2008.
  8. ^ "Karl Pearson". School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews. 2003.
  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.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ "William Sealy Gosset". Figures from the History of Probability and Statistics. University of Southampton.
  12. ^ Strecker, Heinrich; Strecker, Rosemarie (2016). "Oskar Anderson". Encyclopedia of Mathematics. Springer-Verlag GmbH, Heidelberg.
  13. ^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. (May 2000), "Oskar Johann Viktor Anderson", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  14. ^ Sheynin, O.B. (1970). "Anderson, Oskar Johann Viktor". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 154–155. ISBN 978-0-684-10114-9.
  15. ^ Jörg Siebels; Kerstin Nees. "Oskar Anderson". Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Famous scholars from Kiel. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  16. ^ "Fisher, R.A." Statisticians in History. American Statistical Association. 30 November 2016.
  17. ^ "R.A. Fisher". Figures from the History of Probability and Statistics. University of Southampton.
  18. ^ "A Guide to R. A. Fisher".
  19. ^ "Neyman, Jerzy". Statisticians in History. American Statistical Association. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013.
  20. ^ "Deming, W. Edwards". Statisticians in History. American Statistical Association. 30 November 2016.
  21. ^ "Pearson, Egon S." Statisticians in History. American Statistical Association. Archived from the original on 7 March 2013.
  22. ^ Mccullagh, Peter (2003). "John Wilder Tukey. 16 June 1915 – 26 July 2000". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 49: 537–555. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2003.0032. S2CID 62561283.
  23. ^ William Grimes (17 July 2010). "David Blackwell, Scholar of Probability, Dies at 91". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 September 2014. His "Basic Statistics" (1969) was one of the first textbooks on Bayesian statistics, which assess the uncertainty of future outcomes by incorporating new evidence as it arises, rather than relying on historical data. He also wrote numerous papers on multistage decision-making.
  24. ^ Degroot, Morris H. (1987). "A Conversation with C. R. Rao". Statistical Science. 2: 53–67. doi:10.1214/ss/1177013438.
  25. ^ Kruse, Megan. "C.R. Rao Receives National Medal of Science". American Statistical Association. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
  26. ^ Wermuth, Nanny; Anthony C. Davison; Dodge, Yadolah (2005). Celebrating Statistics: Papers in honour of Sir David Cox on his 80th birthday (Oxford Statistical Science Series). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-856654-0. OCLC 185035518.
  27. ^ Casella, George (2003). "Introduction to the Silver Anniversary of the Bootstrap". Statistical Science. 18 (2): 133–134. doi:10.1214/ss/1063994967.