Founders of statistics

Statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....

is the theory and application of mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

to the scientific method

Scientific method

Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...

including hypothesis generation, experimental design, sampling

Sampling (statistics)

In statistics and survey methodology, sampling is concerned with the selection of a subset of individuals from within a population to estimate characteristics of the whole population....

, data collection

Data collection

Data collection is a term used to describe a process of preparing and collecting data, for example, as part of a process improvement or similar project. The purpose of data collection is to obtain information to keep on record, to make decisions about important issues, to pass information on to...

, data summarization

Summary statistics

In descriptive statistics, summary statistics are used to summarize a set of observations, in order to communicate the largest amount as simply as possible...

, estimation

Estimator

In statistics, an estimator is a rule for calculating an estimate of a given quantity based on observed data: thus the rule and its result are distinguished....

, prediction

Prediction

A prediction or forecast is a statement about the way things will happen in the future, often but not always based on experience or knowledge...

and inference

Statistical inference

In statistics, statistical inference is the process of drawing conclusions from data that are subject to random variation, for example, observational errors or sampling variation...

from those results to the population

Statistical population

A statistical population is a set of entities concerning which statistical inferences are to be drawn, often based on a random sample taken from the population. For example, if we were interested in generalizations about crows, then we would describe the set of crows that is of interest...

from which the experimental sample was drawn. This article lists statisticians who have been instrumental in the development of theoretical

Mathematical statistics

Mathematical statistics is the study of statistics from a mathematical standpoint, using probability theory as well as other branches of mathematics such as linear algebra and analysis...

and applied statistics.

John Graunt
John Graunt
John Graunt was one of the first demographers, though by profession he was a haberdasher. Born in London, the eldest of seven or eight children of Henry and Mary Graunt. His father was a draper who had moved to London from Hampshire...

(English, 1620–1674)
- Pioneer of demography
  Demography
  Demography is the statistical study of human population. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic human population, that is, one that changes over time or space...
  
  who produced the first life table
  Life table
  In actuarial science, a life table is a table which shows, for each age, what the probability is that a person of that age will die before his or her next birthday...
Thomas Bayes
Thomas Bayes
Thomas Bayes was an English mathematician and Presbyterian minister, known for having formulated a specific case of the theorem that bears his name: Bayes' theorem...

(English, 1702–1761)
- Developed the interpretation of probability
  Probability
  Probability is ordinarily used to describe an attitude of mind towards some proposition of whose truth we arenot certain. The proposition of interest is usually of the form "Will a specific event occur?" The attitude of mind is of the form "How certain are we that the event will occur?" The...
  
  now known as Bayes theorem
Pierre-Simon Laplace
Pierre-Simon Laplace
Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace was a French mathematician and astronomer whose work was pivotal to the development of mathematical astronomy and statistics. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste...

(French, 1749—1827)
- Co-invented Bayesian statistics
  Bayesian statistics
  Bayesian statistics is that subset of the entire field of statistics in which the evidence about the true state of the world is expressed in terms of degrees of belief or, more specifically, Bayesian probabilities...
  
  . Invented exponential families
  Exponential family
  In probability and statistics, an exponential family is an important class of probability distributions sharing a certain form, specified below. This special form is chosen for mathematical convenience, on account of some useful algebraic properties, as well as for generality, as exponential...
  
  (Laplace transform), conjugate prior
  Conjugate prior
  In Bayesian probability theory, if the posterior distributions p are in the same family as the prior probability distribution p, the prior and posterior are then called conjugate distributions, and the prior is called a conjugate prior for the likelihood...
  
  distributions, asymptotic analysis
  Asymptotic analysis
  In mathematical analysis, asymptotic analysis is a method of describing limiting behavior. The methodology has applications across science. Examples are...
  
  of estimators (including negligibility of regular priors). Used maximum-likelihood
  Maximum likelihood
  In statistics, maximum-likelihood estimation is a method of estimating the parameters of a statistical model. When applied to a data set and given a statistical model, maximum-likelihood estimation provides estimates for the model's parameters....
  
  and posterior-mode estimation and considered (robust
  Robust statistics
  Robust statistics provides an alternative approach to classical statistical methods. The motivation is to produce estimators that are not unduly affected by small departures from model assumptions.- Introduction :...
  
  ) loss functions
William Playfair
William Playfair
William Playfair was a Scottish engineer and political economist, the founder of graphical methods of statistics....

(Scottish, 1759–1823)
- Pioneer of statistical graphics
  Statistical graphics
  Statistical graphics, also known as graphical techniques, are information graphics in the field of statistics used to visualize quantitative data.- Overview :...
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy and optics.Sometimes referred to as the Princeps mathematicorum...

(German, 1777–1855)
- Invented least squares
  Least squares
  The method of least squares is a standard approach to the approximate solution of overdetermined systems, i.e., sets of equations in which there are more equations than unknowns. "Least squares" means that the overall solution minimizes the sum of the squares of the errors made in solving every...
  
  estimation methods (with Legendre
  Adrien-Marie Legendre
  Adrien-Marie Legendre was a French mathematician.The Moon crater Legendre is named after him.- Life :...
  
  ). Used loss functions and maximum-likelihood
  Maximum likelihood
  In statistics, maximum-likelihood estimation is a method of estimating the parameters of a statistical model. When applied to a data set and given a statistical model, maximum-likelihood estimation provides estimates for the model's parameters....
  
  estimation
Adolphe Quetelet
Adolphe Quetelet
Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet was a Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist. He founded and directed the Brussels Observatory and was influential in introducing statistical methods to the social sciences...

(Belgian, 1796–1874)
- Pioneered the use of probability and statistics in the social sciences
  Social sciences
  Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...

(English, 1820–1910)
- Applied statistical analysis to health problems, contributing to the establishment of epidemiology and public health practice. Developed statistical graphics
  Statistical graphics
  Statistical graphics, also known as graphical techniques, are information graphics in the field of statistics used to visualize quantitative data.- Overview :...
  
  especially for mobilizing public opinion. First female member of the Royal Statistical Society
  Royal Statistical Society
  The Royal Statistical Society is a learned society for statistics and a professional body for statisticians in the UK.-History:It was founded in 1834 as the Statistical Society of London , though a perhaps unrelated London Statistical Society was in existence at least as early as 1824...
  
  .
Francis Galton
Francis Galton
Sir Francis Galton /ˈfrɑːnsɪs ˈgɔːltn̩/ FRS , cousin of Douglas Strutt Galton, half-cousin of Charles Darwin, was an English Victorian polymath: anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician...

(English, 1822–1911)
- Invented the concepts of standard deviation
  Standard deviation
  Standard deviation is a widely used measure of variability or diversity used in statistics and probability theory. It shows how much variation or "dispersion" there is from the average...
  
  , correlation
  Correlation
  In statistics, dependence refers to any statistical relationship between two random variables or two sets of data. Correlation refers to any of a broad class of statistical relationships involving dependence....
  
  , regression
  Regression analysis
  In statistics, regression analysis includes many techniques for modeling and analyzing several variables, when the focus is on the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables...
Thorvald N. Thiele
Thorvald N. Thiele
Thorvald Nicolai Thiele was a Danish astronomer, actuary and mathematician, most notable for his work in statistics, interpolation and the three-body problem. He was the first to propose a mathematical theory of Brownian motion...

(Danish, 1838–1910)
- Introduced cumulants and the term "likelihood
  Likelihood function
  In statistics, a likelihood function is a function of the parameters of a statistical model, defined as follows: the likelihood of a set of parameter values given some observed outcomes is equal to the probability of those observed outcomes given those parameter values...
  
  ". Introduced a Kalman filter
  Kalman filter
  In statistics, the Kalman filter is a mathematical method named after Rudolf E. Kálmán. Its purpose is to use measurements observed over time, containing noise and other inaccuracies, and produce values that tend to be closer to the true values of the measurements and their associated calculated...
  
  in time-series
Charles S. Peirce (United States, 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
  Repeated measures design
  The repeated measures design uses the same subjects with every condition of the research, including the control. For instance, repeated measures are collected in a longitudinal study in which change over time is assessed. Other studies compare the same measure under two or more different conditions...
  
  , introduced blinded
  Blinding
  Blinding can refer to:*The act of making someone blind**Metaphorical and extended uses of same: see blindness#Metaphorical uses*Blinding , a technique by which an agent can provide a service to a client in an encoded form without knowing either the real input or the real output*Blinding , a novel...
  
  , controlled randomized experiments
  Randomized controlled trial
  A randomized controlled trial is a type of scientific experiment - a form of clinical trial - most commonly used in testing the safety and efficacy or effectiveness of healthcare services or health technologies A randomized controlled trial (RCT) is a type of scientific experiment - a form of...
  
  (before Fisher). Invented optimal design
  Optimal design
  Optimal designs are a class of experimental designs that are optimal with respect to some statistical criterion.In the design of experiments for estimating statistical models, optimal designs allow parameters to be estimated without bias and with minimum-variance...
  
  for experiments on gravity, in which he "corrected the means
  Analysis of variance
  In statistics, analysis of variance is a collection of statistical models, and their associated procedures, in which the observed variance in a particular variable is partitioned into components attributable to different sources of variation...
  
  ". He used correlation
  Correlation
  In statistics, dependence refers to any statistical relationship between two random variables or two sets of data. Correlation refers to any of a broad class of statistical relationships involving dependence....
  
  , smoothing
  Smoothing
  In statistics and image processing, to smooth a data set is to create an approximating function that attempts to capture important patterns in the data, while leaving out noise or other fine-scale structures/rapid phenomena. Many different algorithms are used in smoothing...
  
  , and improved the treatment of outliers
  Peirce's criterion
  In robust statistics, Peirce's criterion is a rule for eliminating outliers from data sets, which was devised by Benjamin Peirce.-The problem of outliers:...
  
  . Introduced terms "confidence
  Confidence interval
  In statistics, a confidence interval is a particular kind of interval estimate of a population parameter and is used to indicate the reliability of an estimate. It is an observed interval , in principle different from sample to sample, that frequently includes the parameter of interest, if the...
  
  " and "likelihood
  Likelihood function
  In statistics, a likelihood function is a function of the parameters of a statistical model, defined as follows: the likelihood of a set of parameter values given some observed outcomes is equal to the probability of those observed outcomes given those parameter values...
  
  " (before Neyman
  Jerzy Neyman
  Jerzy Neyman , born Jerzy Spława-Neyman, was a Polish American mathematician and statistician who spent most of his professional career at the University of California, Berkeley.-Life and career:...
  
  and Fisher). While largely a frequentist
  Frequency probability
  Frequency probability is the interpretation of probability that defines an event's probability as the limit of its relative frequency in a large number of trials. The development of the frequentist account was motivated by the problems and paradoxes of the previously dominant viewpoint, the...
  
  , Peirce's possible world semantics introduced the "propensity" theory of probability. See the historical books of Stephen Stigler
  Stephen Stigler
  Stephen Mack Stigler is Ernest DeWitt Burton Distinguished Service Professor at the Department of Statistics of the University of Chicago. His research has focused on statistical theory of robust estimators and the history of statistics...
Francis Ysidro Edgeworth
Francis Ysidro Edgeworth
Francis Ysidro Edgeworth FBA was an Irish philosopher and political economist who made significant contributions to the methods of statistics during the 1880s...

(Ireland and England, 1845–1926)
- Revived exponential families
  Exponential family
  In probability and statistics, an exponential family is an important class of probability distributions sharing a certain form, specified below. This special form is chosen for mathematical convenience, on account of some useful algebraic properties, as well as for generality, as exponential...
  
  (Laplace transforms) in statistics. Extended Laplace
  Pierre-Simon Laplace
  Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace was a French mathematician and astronomer whose work was pivotal to the development of mathematical astronomy and statistics. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste...
  
  's (asymptotic
  Asymptotic analysis
  In mathematical analysis, asymptotic analysis is a method of describing limiting behavior. The methodology has applications across science. Examples are...
  
  ) theory of maximum-likelihood
  Maximum likelihood
  In statistics, maximum-likelihood estimation is a method of estimating the parameters of a statistical model. When applied to a data set and given a statistical model, maximum-likelihood estimation provides estimates for the model's parameters....
  
  estimation. Introduced basic results on information
  Fisher information
  In mathematical statistics and information theory, the Fisher information is the variance of the score. In Bayesian statistics, the asymptotic distribution of the posterior mode depends on the Fisher information and not on the prior...
  
  , which were extended and popularized by R. A. Fisher
Karl Pearson
Karl Pearson
Karl Pearson FRS was an influential English mathematician who has been credited for establishing the disciplineof mathematical statistics....

(English, 1857–1936)
- Numerous innovations, including the development of the Pearson chi-squared test and the Pearson correlation. Founded the Biometrical Society and Biometrika
  Biometrika
  - External links :* . The Internet Archive. 2011....
  
  , the first journal of mathematical statistics
  Mathematical statistics
  Mathematical statistics is the study of statistics from a mathematical standpoint, using probability theory as well as other branches of mathematics such as linear algebra and analysis...
  
  and biometry
Charles Spearman
Charles Spearman
Charles Edward Spearman, FRS was an English psychologist known for work in statistics, as a pioneer of factor analysis, and for Spearman's rank correlation coefficient...

(English, 1863–1945)
- Extended the Pearson correlation coefficient to the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient
  Spearman's rank correlation coefficient
  In statistics, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient or Spearman's rho, named after Charles Spearman and often denoted by the Greek letter \rho or as r_s, is a non-parametric measure of statistical dependence between two variables. It assesses how well the relationship between two variables can...
William Sealy Gosset
William Sealy Gosset
William Sealy Gosset is famous as a statistician, best known by his pen name Student and for his work on Student's t-distribution....

(known as "Student") (English, 1876–1937)
- Discovered the Student t distribution and invented the Student's t-test
  Student's t-test
  A t-test is any statistical hypothesis test in which the test statistic follows a Student's t distribution if the null hypothesis is supported. It is most commonly applied when the test statistic would follow a normal distribution if the value of a scaling term in the test statistic were known...
Ronald A. Fisher
Ronald Fisher
Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher FRS was an English statistician, evolutionary biologist, eugenicist and geneticist. Among other things, Fisher is well known for his contributions to statistics by creating Fisher's exact test and Fisher's equation...

(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
  Analysis of variance
  In statistics, analysis of variance is a collection of statistical models, and their associated procedures, in which the observed variance in a particular variable is partitioned into components attributable to different sources of variation...
  
  , clarified the method of maximum likelihood
  Maximum likelihood
  In statistics, maximum-likelihood estimation is a method of estimating the parameters of a statistical model. When applied to a data set and given a statistical model, maximum-likelihood estimation provides estimates for the model's parameters....
  
  (without the uniform priors appearing in some previous versions), invented the concept of sufficient statistics, developed Edgeworth's use of exponential families
  Exponential family
  In probability and statistics, an exponential family is an important class of probability distributions sharing a certain form, specified below. This special form is chosen for mathematical convenience, on account of some useful algebraic properties, as well as for generality, as exponential...
  
  and information
  Fisher information
  In mathematical statistics and information theory, the Fisher information is the variance of the score. In Bayesian statistics, the asymptotic distribution of the posterior mode depends on the Fisher information and not on the prior...
  
  , introducing observed Fisher information
  Fisher information
  In mathematical statistics and information theory, the Fisher information is the variance of the score. In Bayesian statistics, the asymptotic distribution of the posterior mode depends on the Fisher information and not on the prior...
  
  , and many theoretical concepts and practical methods, particularly for the design of experiments
  Design of experiments
  In general usage, design of experiments or experimental design is the design of any information-gathering exercises where variation is present, whether under the full control of the experimenter or not. However, in statistics, these terms are usually used for controlled experiments...
Carlo Emilio Bonferroni
Carlo Emilio Bonferroni
Carlo Emilio Bonferroni was an Italian mathematician who worked on probability theory. Carlo Emilio Bonferroni was born in Bergamo on 28 January 1892 and died on 18 August 1960 in Firenze . He studied in Torino , held a post as assistant professor at the Turin Polytechnic, and in 1923 took up the...

(Italian, 1892–1960)
- Invented the Bonferroni correction
  Bonferroni correction
  In statistics, the Bonferroni correction is a method used to counteract the problem of multiple comparisons. It was developed and introduced by Italian mathematician Carlo Emilio Bonferroni...
  
  for multiple comparisons
  Multiple comparisons
  In statistics, the multiple comparisons or multiple testing problem occurs when one considers a set of statistical inferences simultaneously. Errors in inference, including confidence intervals that fail to include their corresponding population parameters or hypothesis tests that incorrectly...
Frank Wilcoxon
Frank Wilcoxon
Frank Wilcoxon was a chemist and statistician, known for the development of several statistical tests....

(Irish, American, 1892–1965)
- Invented two statistical tests: Wilcoxon rank-sum test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test
  Wilcoxon signed-rank test
  The Wilcoxon signed-rank test is a non-parametric statistical hypothesis test used when comparing two related samples or repeated measurements on a single sample to assess whether their population mean ranks differ The Wilcoxon signed-rank test is a non-parametric statistical hypothesis test used...
Jerzy Neyman
Jerzy Neyman
Jerzy Neyman , born Jerzy Spława-Neyman, was a Polish American mathematician and statistician who spent most of his professional career at the University of California, Berkeley.-Life and career:...

(Polish, American, 1894–1981)
- Discovered the confidence interval
  Confidence interval
  In statistics, a confidence interval is a particular kind of interval estimate of a population parameter and is used to indicate the reliability of an estimate. It is an observed interval , in principle different from sample to sample, that frequently includes the parameter of interest, if the...
  
  and co-developed the Neyman-Pearson lemma
W. Edwards Deming
W. Edwards Deming
William Edwards Deming was an American statistician, professor, author, lecturer and consultant. He is perhaps best known for his work in Japan...

(American, 1900–1993)
- Developed methods for statistical quality control
  Quality control
  Quality control, or QC for short, is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. This approach places an emphasis on three aspects:...
Egon Pearson
Egon Pearson
Egon Sharpe Pearson, CBE FRS was the only son of Karl Pearson, and like his father, a leading British statistician....

(English, 1895–1980)
- Co-developed the Neyman-Pearson lemma of statistical hypothesis testing
Bruno de Finetti
Bruno de Finetti
Bruno de Finetti was an Italian probabilist, statistician and actuary, noted for the "operational subjective" conception of probability...

(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.
Maurice Kendall
Maurice Kendall
Sir Maurice George Kendall, FBA was a British statistician, widely known for his contribution to statistics. The Kendall tau rank correlation is named after him.-Education and early life:...

(English, 1907–1983)
- Co-developed methods for assessing statistical randomness
  Statistical randomness
  A numeric sequence is said to be statistically random when it contains no recognizable patterns or regularities; sequences such as the results of an ideal dice roll, or the digits of π exhibit statistical randomness....
  
  ; invented Kendall tau rank correlation coefficient
  Kendall tau rank correlation coefficient
  In statistics, the Kendall rank correlation coefficient, commonly referred to as Kendall's tau coefficient, is a statistic used to measure the association between two measured quantities...
John Wilder Tukey
John Tukey
John Wilder Tukey ForMemRS was an American statistician.- Biography :Tukey was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1915, and obtained a B.A. in 1936 and M.Sc. in 1937, in chemistry, from Brown University, before moving to Princeton University where he received a Ph.D...

(American, 1915–2000)
- Jointly popularized Fast Fourier transform
  Fast Fourier transform
  A fast Fourier transform is an efficient algorithm to compute the discrete Fourier transform and its inverse. "The FFT has been called the most important numerical algorithm of our lifetime ." There are many distinct FFT algorithms involving a wide range of mathematics, from simple...
  
  ation, pioneer of exploratory data analysis
  Exploratory data analysis
  In statistics, exploratory data analysis is an approach to analysing data sets to summarize their main characteristics in easy-to-understand form, often with visual graphs, without using a statistical model or having formulated a hypothesis...
  
  and graphical presentation
  Statistical graphics
  Statistical graphics, also known as graphical techniques, are information graphics in the field of statistics used to visualize quantitative data.- Overview :...
  
  of data, developed the jackknife
  Jackknife
  Jackknife may refer to:* Jackknife, pocket knife* Jacknife, 1989 American film* Jackknife, jackknife hold, a pinning move in wrestling* Jackknife, kicking move involving 540-degree rotationJackknife may refer to:* Jackknife, pocket knife...
  
  for variance estimation, invented the box plot
  Box plot
  In descriptive statistics, a box plot or boxplot is a convenient way of graphically depicting groups of numerical data through their five-number summaries: the smallest observation , lower quartile , median , upper quartile , and largest observation...
  
  .
Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao (Indian, 1920–)
- Co-developed Cramér–Rao bound and Rao–Blackwell theorem
  Rao–Blackwell theorem
  In statistics, the Rao–Blackwell theorem, sometimes referred to as the Rao–Blackwell–Kolmogorov theorem, is a result which characterizes the transformation of an arbitrarily crude estimator into an estimator that is optimal by the mean-squared-error criterion or any of a variety of similar...
  
  , invented MINQUE
  Minque
  In statistics, the theory of minimum norm quadratic unbiased estimation was developed by C.R. Rao. Its application was originally to the estimation of variance components in random effects models.The theory involves three stages:...
  
  method of variance component estimation.
David Cox
David Cox (statistician)
Sir David Roxbee Cox FRS is a prominent British statistician.-Early years:Cox studied mathematics at St. John's College, Cambridge and obtained his PhD from the University of Leeds in 1949, advised by Henry Daniels and Bernard Welch.-Career:He was employed from 1944 to 1946 at the Royal Aircraft...

(English, 1924–)
- Developed the proportional hazards model for the analysis of survival data
  Survival analysis
  Survival analysis is a branch of statistics which deals with death in biological organisms and failure in mechanical systems. This topic is called reliability theory or reliability analysis in engineering, and duration analysis or duration modeling in economics or sociology...
Bradley Efron
Bradley Efron
Bradley Efron is an American statistician best known for proposing the bootstrap resampling technique, which has had a major impact in the field of statistics and virtually every area of statistical application...

(American, 1938–)
- Invented the bootstrap resampling technique
  Bootstrapping (statistics)
  In statistics, bootstrapping is a computer-based method for assigning measures of accuracy to sample estimates . This technique allows estimation of the sample distribution of almost any statistic using only very simple methods...
  
  for deriving an empirical distribution of an estimate of a model parameter

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 in the United States.

Year	University	Founder
1911	University College London University College London University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...	Karl Pearson Karl Pearson Karl Pearson FRS was an influential English mathematician who has been credited for establishing the disciplineof mathematical statistics....
~1931	Columbia University Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...	Harold Hotelling Harold Hotelling Harold Hotelling was a mathematical statistician and an influential economic theorist.He was Associate Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University from 1927 until 1931, a member of the faculty of Columbia University from 1931 until 1946, and a Professor of Mathematical Statistics at the...
1933	Iowa State University Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...	George W. Snedecor George W. Snedecor George Waddel Snedecor was an American mathematician and statistician. He contributed to the foundations of analysis of variance, data analysis, experimental design, and statistical methodology. Snedecor's F distribution and the George W...
1941	North Carolina State University North Carolina State University North Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...	Gertrude Cox
1942	Uppsala University Uppsala University Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...	Herman Wold Herman Wold Herman Ole Andreas Wold was a Norwegian-born econometrician and statistician who had a long career in Sweden...
1947	University of Manchester University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...	M. S. Bartlett M. S. Bartlett Maurice Stevenson Bartlett FRS was an English statistician who made particular contributions to the analysis of data with spatial and temporal patterns...
1947	Department of Biometry and Statistics, Cornell University Cornell University Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...	Walter T. Federer
1948	Stanford University Stanford University The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...	-
1949	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...	-
1949	University of Chicago University of Chicago The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...	-
1953	Cambridge University, Statistics Lab	John Wishart John Wishart (statistician) John Wishart was a Scottish mathematician and agricultural statistician.He worked successively at University College London with Karl Pearson, at Rothamsted Experimental Station with Ronald Fisher, and then as a reader in statistics in the University of Cambridge where he became the first...
1955	University of California, Berkeley University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...	Jerzy Neyman Jerzy Neyman Jerzy Neyman , born Jerzy Spława-Neyman, was a Polish American mathematician and statistician who spent most of his professional career at the University of California, Berkeley.-Life and career:...
1957	Harvard University Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...	W. G. Cochran William Gemmell Cochran William Gemmell Cochran was a prominent statistician; he was born in Scotland but spent most of his life in the United States.... Frederick Mosteller
1957	University of Sydney University of Sydney The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...	H.O. Lancaster
1962	Texas A&M University Texas A&M University Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...	Herman Otto Hartley Herman Otto Hartley H. O. Hartley , born Herman Otto Hirschfeld but commonly called HOH, was a German-American statistician. He developed Hartley's test for equality of variances . In 1967 he and J.N.K. Rao published a maximum likelihood method for finding variance components in mixed models...
1963	Yale University Yale University Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...	Francis Anscombe Francis Anscombe Francis John Anscombe was a statistician.Born in Hove in England, Anscombe was educated at Trinity College at Cambridge University...
1965	Princeton University Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....	John W Tukey
1965	University of Iowa University of Iowa The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...	Robert V. Hogg Robert V. Hogg Robert Vincent Hogg is an American statistician and professor of statistics of the University of Iowa. Hogg is known for his widely used textbooks on statistics and on mathematical statistics...
1966	University of Glasgow University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...	John Aitchison John Aitchison John Aitchison is a Scottish statistician. He studied at the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge. From 1966 to 1976 he was Titular Professor of Statistics, and Mitchell Lecturer in Statistics at the University of Glasgow. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1968... , David Silvey
1973	The Ohio State University	D. Ransom Whitney
1979	University of Toronto University of Toronto The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...	-
1988	University of Oxford University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...	D. V. Hinkley
1996	University of Virginia School of Medicine University of Virginia School of Medicine The University of Virginia School of Medicine is a medical school located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. The tenth medical school to open in the United States, it has been part of the University of Virginia since the University's establishment in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson...	Frank E. Harrell

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