Harry V. Roberts
Encyclopedia
Harry V. Roberts statistician
, was a distinguished teacher and a pioneer in looking at the applications of Bayesian statistics
to business decision making and in Total Quality Management
.
Roberts began teaching at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 1949 as an instructor of statistics. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1951. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1955, and was appointed associate professor. He was made full professor in 1959, and was named Sigmund E. Edelstone Professor of Statistics and Quality Management in 1991. In 1997, Roberts was awarded the Norman Maclean
Faculty Award from the University of Chicago for his contributions to teaching and to the student experience on campus. In recognition of his career achievements, the Chicago chapter of the American Statistical Association
created the Harry V. Roberts Statistical Advocate Award, first given in January 2002.
His varied research interests also included interactive computing
; time series analysis; the relation between statistical theory
and practical decision making
; survey
methodology and practice; and productivity and quality improvement.
Roberts was the co-author of many influential publications, including two groundbreaking books: Basic Methods of Marketing Research (with James Lorie) and the textbook, Statistics: A New Approach, (with W. Allan Wallis). He also co-authored an early work on the random walk hypothesis
of stock market prices, “Differencing of Random Walks and Near Random Walks,” with Nicholas Gonedes, published in the Journal of Econometrics
in 1977.
Roberts was an early computer enthusiast, and was especially interested in developing computer methods for statistical analysis. In the late 1960s, Roberts, in collaboration with his wife June and Robert Ling, developed a statistics package called Interactive Data Analysis (IDA), used for statistical instruction at a number of top business schools.
Toward the end of his career, Roberts helped develop a curriculum in Total Quality Management at Chicago GSB and co-authored Quality is Personal: A Foundation for Total Quality Management (with B. E. Sergesketter). This was a novel application of TQM methods to self-improvement, reminiscent of self-experimentation
.
Statistician
A statistician is someone who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it...
, was a distinguished teacher and a pioneer in looking at the applications of 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...
to business decision making and in Total Quality Management
Total Quality Management
Total quality management or TQM is an integrative philosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and processes....
.
Roberts began teaching at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 1949 as an instructor of statistics. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1951. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1955, and was appointed associate professor. He was made full professor in 1959, and was named Sigmund E. Edelstone Professor of Statistics and Quality Management in 1991. In 1997, Roberts was awarded the Norman Maclean
Norman Maclean
Norman Fitzroy Maclean was an American author and scholar noted for his books A River Runs Through It and Other Stories and Young Men and Fire .-Biography:...
Faculty Award from the University of Chicago for his contributions to teaching and to the student experience on campus. In recognition of his career achievements, the Chicago chapter of the American Statistical Association
American Statistical Association
The American Statistical Association , is the main professional US organization for statisticians and related professions. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest, continuously operating professional society in the United States...
created the Harry V. Roberts Statistical Advocate Award, first given in January 2002.
His varied research interests also included interactive computing
Interactive computing
In computer science, interactive computing refers to software which accepts input from humans — for example, data or commands. Interactive software includes most popular programs, such as word processors or spreadsheet applications. By comparison, noninteractive programs operate without human...
; time series analysis; the relation between statistical theory
Statistical theory
The theory of statistics provides a basis for the whole range of techniques, in both study design and data analysis, that are used within applications of statistics. The theory covers approaches to statistical-decision problems and to statistical inference, and the actions and deductions that...
and practical decision making
Decision making
Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.- Overview :Human performance in decision terms...
; survey
Statistical survey
Survey methodology is the field that studies surveys, that is, the sample of individuals from a population with a view towards making statistical inferences about the population using the sample. Polls about public opinion, such as political beliefs, are reported in the news media in democracies....
methodology and practice; and productivity and quality improvement.
Roberts was the co-author of many influential publications, including two groundbreaking books: Basic Methods of Marketing Research (with James Lorie) and the textbook, Statistics: A New Approach, (with W. Allan Wallis). He also co-authored an early work on the random walk hypothesis
Random walk hypothesis
The random walk hypothesis is a financial theory stating that stock market prices evolve according to a random walk and thus the prices of the stock market cannot be predicted. It is consistent with the efficient-market hypothesis....
of stock market prices, “Differencing of Random Walks and Near Random Walks,” with Nicholas Gonedes, published in the Journal of Econometrics
Journal of Econometrics
The Journal of Econometrics is a leading scholarly journal in econometrics. It was first published in 1973. Its current editors are A.R. Gallant, J.F. Geweke, C. Hsiao, and P.M...
in 1977.
Roberts was an early computer enthusiast, and was especially interested in developing computer methods for statistical analysis. In the late 1960s, Roberts, in collaboration with his wife June and Robert Ling, developed a statistics package called Interactive Data Analysis (IDA), used for statistical instruction at a number of top business schools.
Toward the end of his career, Roberts helped develop a curriculum in Total Quality Management at Chicago GSB and co-authored Quality is Personal: A Foundation for Total Quality Management (with B. E. Sergesketter). This was a novel application of TQM methods to self-improvement, reminiscent of self-experimentation
Self-experimentation
Self-experimentation refers to the very special case of single-subject scientific experimentation in which the experimenter conducts the experiment on her- or himself. Usually this means that the designer, operator, subject, analyst, and user or reporter of the experiment are all the same...
.