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Princeton University Department of Statistics (1965–1985)

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Strength in Numbers: The Rising of Academic Statistics Departments in the U. S.

Abstract

The Department of Statistics at Princeton lasted only 20 years, but its activities have had a lasting impact on the discipline. The chapter describes the background and early years of the department, starting from the arrival of Samuel S. Wilks in the Department of Mathematics in 1933; the composition of the department; selected projects that illustrate the department’s activities and contributions; and its closure. An appendix lists faculty and graduate students in the Department of Statistic, and also statisticians and probabilists who received their PhD from the Department of Mathematics.

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Acknowledgments

Without the generous help of others, we could not have written even this limited account. We thank J. Stuart Hunter for researching the composition of the Department, Associate Dean David N. Redman of the Graduate School for supplying a copy of the material in A Princeton Companion and for valuable suggestions, University Archivist Daniel J. Linke and the staff of the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library for access to the Department’s annual reports for 1969–1970 to 1976–1977 and 1978–1979 to 1984–1985, and Richard D. De Veaux, James J. Filliben, John A. Hartigan, J. Michael Steele, and James R. Thompson for helpful conversations.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 73 Hickory Road, Sudbury, MA, 01776, USA

    David C. Hoaglin

  2. Department of Statistics, Indiana University Bloomington, 309 North Park Avenue, Bloomington, IN, 47408, USA

    Karen Kafadar

Authors
  1. David C. Hoaglin
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  2. Karen Kafadar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David C. Hoaglin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Statistics Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611-8545, USA

    Alan Agresti

  2. , Statistics Department, Harvard University, Oxford Street 1, Cambridge, 02138-2901, USA

    Xiao-Li Meng

Appendix

Appendix

From the Department’s annual reports for 1969–1970 through 1984–1985, we assembled the following lists of regular and adjunct faculty with their years of service.

Regular Faculty

Dan Anbar, 1971-72; David F. Andrews, 1968-71; Peter Bloomfield, 1971-82; Henry I. Braun, 1973-79; Joseph G. Deken, 1976-79; Luisa T. Fernholz, 1980-84; Noreen Goldman, 1984-85; Colin Goodall, 1984-85; John A. Hartigan, 1965-68; Nicholas P. Jewell, 1979-81; Lawrence S. Mayer, 1974-79; James McBride, 1976-80; Donald R. McNeil, 1971-76; Gary W. Oehlert, 1981-84; Antonio M. Possolo, 1983-84; Elvezio M. Ronchetti, 1983-85; Glenn R. Shafer, 1973-76; Andrew F. Siegel, 1979-83; Gary A. Simon, 1971-75; J. Michael Steele, 1983-85; Leonard M. Steinberg, 1967-70; Frederick F. Stephan, 1965-71; Mary Lou Thompson, 1979-81; John W. Tukey, 1965-85; James Veitch, 1983-84; Geoffrey S. Watson, 1970-85; Allan Wilks, 1981-84; Thomas H. Woteki, 1976-78

Statisticians with Local Non-academic Affiliations Who Served as Visiting Lecturers

Albert E. Beaton (Educational Testing Service), 1966-1977; Richard A. Leibler (Institute for Defense Analyses), 1966-1969, 1971-1975; Richard F. Link (consultant), 1966-1970; Donald B. Rubin (Educational Testing Service), 1971-1974; Samuel A. Schmitt (Institute for Defense Analyses), 1966-1969, 1971-1975

Statisticians and Probabilists Who Received Their PhD from the Department of Mathematics, 1940 through 1967

Theodore W. Anderson, Jr., 1945; Harvey J. Arnold, 1958; Patrick P. Billingsley, 1955; Edward S. Boylan, 1962; David R. Brillinger, 1961; George W. Brown, 1940; Morton B. Brown, 1965; Bradley D. Bucher, 1957; Donald S. Burdick, 1961; Kai-Lai Chung, 1946; Gordon B. Crawford, 1962; Joseph F. Daly, 1940; Arthur P. Dempster, 1956; Wilfrid J. Dixon, 1944; Richard M. Dudley, 1962; A. Ross Eckler, 1954; Donald A. S. Fraser, 1948; David A. Freedman, 1960; David Gale, 1949; Donald P. Gaver, 1956; W. Morven Gentleman, 1966; Jay R. Goldman, 1965; Leo A. Goodman, 1950; N. Roy Goodman, 1957; Theodore E. Harris, 1947; John A. Hartigan, 1962; Gilbert A. Hunt, Jr., 1948; Alan T. James, 1953; Edward L. Kaplan, 1951; Samuel Karlin, 1947; Frank B. Knight, 1959; Joseph B. Kruskal, 1954; Robert A. Kurtz, 1967; Thomas E. Kurtz, 1956; James A. Lechner, 1959; Richard F. Link, 1954; Philip J. McCarthy, 1946; Henry P. McKean, Jr., 1955; Paul Meier, 1951; Alexander M. Mood, 1940; Frederick Mosteller, 1946; R. Bradford Murphy, 1951; Peter B. Nemenyi, 1963; Melvin P. Peisakoff, 1950; Loren D. Pitt, 1967; Francis M. Sand, 1963; Herbert E. Scarf, 1954; Lawrence A. Shepp, 1961; Bernard Sherman, 1950; Martin L. Silverstein, 1965; James G. C. Templeton, 1957; James R. Thompson, 1965; Hale F. Trotter, 1956; David F. Votaw, Jr., 1947; David L. Wallace, 1953; John E. Walsh, 1947; David M. G. Wishart, 1960; John W. Woll, Jr., 1956; Thomas H. Wonnacott, 1963; Ralph Wormleighton, 1955

Graduate Students in the Statistics Department, by Year of Entry

Year of entry

Name (year of PhD)

1965–1966

James J. Filliben (1969)

1966–1967

George J. Hariton, David C. Hoaglin (1971), Howard J. Hoffman, Jon Helge Knudsen (1971), Lynn Roy LaMotte, Charles Lewis (1970), Lincoln Polissar (1974), James J. Schlesselman (1971)

1967–1968

Neil Bromberg, Alan M. Gross (1973), Stanislaus M. D’Souza (1971), Richard C. Madden (1971), Stephen J. Finch (1974)

1968–1969

Roderick Montgomery

1969–1970

Thomas L. Corwin (1973), Gunnar T. Gruvaeus, Anita G. Nowlin (1973), Gregory R. Traversy

1970–1971

Dennis D. Ash, Edward S. Binkowski (1974), Robert J. Epp (1973), Theo A. Gasser, Richard B. Landau, John W. Sawyer, Jr.

1971–1972

Ruth W. Arad (1975), David W. Hunter (1975), Tony K. S. Quon (1976), Glenn Shafer (1973), Paul F. Velleman (1975)

1972–1973

Noel A. C. Cressie (1975), James E. Ertel (1975), Fred M. Hoppe (1975), Karen M. Kirby (1975), John C. Turner (1976)

1973–1974

Farouk Kazim (1976), Lois A. Kellerman

1974–1975

Pierre C. Delfiner (1978), Alice K. Gerb, Petrus Jakobs, Clifton J. Lancaster, Kuang-Hsien Lin, Michael D. Schwartzschild (1979), Donna F. Stroup (1980), David E. Tyler (1979), Hania Zlotnik (1978)

1975–1976

Susan P. Arthur (1979), John Brian Carney, Jr., Anne M. Houtman (1981), Karen Kafadar (1979), Louis K. Kates (1981), Donna L. Mohr (1981), Arthur R. Silverberg (1980), Terry L. Watt

1976–1977

Yoav Benjamini (1981), Francine Blanchet, Mark Gordon, Roberta Guarino (1981), Allan R. Wilks (1980)

1977–1978

Flavio C. Bartmann (1982), Kaizo I. Beltrao (1982), David E. Coleman, Miriam L. Goldberg (1982), Jenepher M. Gosling, Paul S. Horn (1981), Katherine B. Krystinik (1981), Robert A. Stine (1982), Patrick L. Zulke

1978–1979

Jeffrey A. Raynes, Scott L. Zeger (1982)

1979–1980

Javier F. Cabrera (1983), Joanne Goldberg

1980–1981

Dhammika J. Amaratunga (1984), Clifford M. Hurvich (1985), William H. Lilliefors, Carlos E. Mendoza (1984), Stephan Morgenthaler (1983), Fanny L. O’Brien (1984), E. Seidel, Christine E. Soteros

1981–1982

George S. Easton (1985), David I. Rubin

1982–1983

Eugene G. Johnson (1988), Ha Hung Nguyen (1986)

1984–1985

Katherine M. Hansen (1989), Edward A. Ipser, M. Semenovsky, Peter J. Slasor

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Hoaglin, D.C., Kafadar, K. (2012). Princeton University Department of Statistics (1965–1985). In: Agresti, A., Meng, XL. (eds) Strength in Numbers: The Rising of Academic Statistics Departments in the U. S.. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3649-2_16

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