Louis Israel Dublin
Encyclopedia
Louis Israel Dublin was a Jewish American statistician
. As vice president and statistician of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
, Dublin promoted progressive and socially useful insurance underwriting
policies. As a scholar he was an important figure in the establishment of demography
as a social-scientific discipline in the United States
during the 1920s and 1930's. Dublin was interested in eugenics
but as a Jew of recent immigrant extraction, criticized eugenicists
for equating biological superiority with Nordic origins.
Dublin was born in Kovno (Kaunas
), Lithuania
. He came to the U.S. in 1886 with his parents Max and Sarah (Rosensweig). Dublin obtained his bachelor's in 1901 at City College of New York. He earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University
in 1904. He married Augusta Salik on April 5, 1908. Dublin taught at Yale
as a lecturer in vital statistics, and in 1924 served as president of the American Statistical Association
.
He died in Orange, Florida at the age of 87.
Collected papers at the Archives, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland
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...
. As vice president and statistician of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, or MetLife, for short, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, with 90 million customers in over 60 countries...
, Dublin promoted progressive and socially useful insurance underwriting
Underwriting
Underwriting refers to the process that a large financial service provider uses to assess the eligibility of a customer to receive their products . The name derives from the Lloyd's of London insurance market...
policies. As a scholar he was an important figure in the establishment 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...
as a social-scientific discipline in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
during the 1920s and 1930's. Dublin was interested in eugenics
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
but as a Jew of recent immigrant extraction, criticized eugenicists
for equating biological superiority with Nordic origins.
Dublin was born in Kovno (Kaunas
Kaunas
Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
), Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
. He came to the U.S. in 1886 with his parents Max and Sarah (Rosensweig). Dublin obtained his bachelor's in 1901 at City College of New York. He earned his Ph.D. at 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...
in 1904. He married Augusta Salik on April 5, 1908. Dublin taught at Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
as a lecturer in vital statistics, and in 1924 served as president of the American Statistical Association
President of the American Statistical Association
The President of the American Statistical Association is the head of the American Statistical Association . According to the association's bylaws, the president is an officer, and a member of the board of directors and of the executive committee. Elections for the position are held annually, in...
.
He died in Orange, Florida at the age of 87.
Major works
- Louis Israel Dublin, Alfred J. Lotka: The Money Value of a Man (Public Health in America Series). New York : Arno Press, 1977 (Repr. of the 1930 ed. by the Ronald Press Co., New York). ISBN 978-0-405-09814-7
- with Lee K. Frankel and Miles M. Dawson, Workingmen's Insurance in Europe, 1910
- with Lee K. Frankel, Principles of Life Insurance, 1911
- Mortality Statistics of Insured Wage Earners and Their Families, 1919
- Louis I. Dublin, To Be or Not to Be: a Study of Suicide, 1933. Harrison Smith and Robert Hass, New York.
- Louis I. Dublin, A Family of Thirty Million: The Story of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, 1943.
- Louis I. Dublin,The Facts of Life: From Birth to Death, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1951.
- A 40 Year Campaign Against TuberculosisTuberculosisTuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, 1952 - Louis I. Dublin, Suicide: a Sociological and Statistical Study,1963. Ronald Press Company, New York.
Other works
Louis I. Dublin, After Eighty Years (autobiography) University of Florida Press, Gainsville 1966, pp. 243- Louis I. Dublin, “Home-Making and Careers,” Atlantic Monthly, 138: 335-43, September 1926.
Collected papers at the Archives, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland
General
- Marquis, Albert Nelson, ed. Who’s Who in America, a Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States, 1926-1927, vol. 14, Chicago: The A.N. Marquis Company, 1926, 624.