Patrick Alfred Pierce Moran
Encyclopedia
Patrick Alfred Pierce Moran FRS (14 July 1917 – 19 September 1988), commonly known as Pat Moran was an Australia
n statistician
who made significant contributions to probability
theory and its application to population
and evolutionary genetics
.
and was the only child of Herbert Michael Moran (b. 1885 in Sydney, d. 1945 in Cambridge UK), a prominent surgeon and Captain of the first Wallabies, and Eva Mann (b. 1887 in Sydney, d. 1977 in Sydney). Patrick did have five other siblings, but they all died at or shortly after birth. He completed his high school studies at St Stanislaus College
in Bathurst
, in three and a half years instead of the normal five year course. At age 16, in 1934, he commenced study at the University of Sydney
where he studied chemistry, zoology, maths and physics, graduating with First Class Honours in mathematics in 1937. Moran was then educated further at Cambridge University from 1937 to 1939 and from 1945 to 1946. Following graduation he went to study at Cambridge University, his supervisors noted that he was not a good mathematician and the outbreak of World War II interrupted his studies. He graduated with an MA (by proxy) from St John's College, Cambridge, on 22 January 1943. He was admitted to Balliol College, Oxford University, on 3 December 1946. He was awarded an MA, from Oxford University, by incorporation
in 1947.
during the War.
After the War, Moran returned to Cambridge where he was supervised by Frederick Smithies and worked unsuccessfully on determining the nature of the set of points of divergence of Fourier integrals of functions in the class Lp
, when 1 < p < 2. He gave up on this project and was employed as a Senior Research Officer at the Institute of Statistics at Oxford University. He also gave lecture courses. Patrick Moran was appointed University Lecturer in Mathematics in 1951, at Oxford, without stipend, for as long as he held the post of senior research officer in the Institute of Statistics. Interestingly, Moran freely admitted he had difficulty with simple arithmetic and wrote that, "Arithmetic I could not do".
He married in 1946 after his appointment; he and his wife Jean Mavis Frame had three children. At Oxford Moran wrote several papers on the nonlinear breeding cycle of the Canadian Lynx. He was made a lecturer at Oxford in 1951 but left the university later that year for Australia. He never acquired a PhD, "a fact he would recall with some pride in later life" recalls Hall.
On 1 January 1951, Moran was appointed foundation Professor of statistics at the National University of Canberra
in the Research School of Social Sciences. He worked on the stochastic study of dam theory, and on population genetics, publishing his first paper "Random processes in genetics" in the Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1958 and culminating in his 1962 book The Statistical Processes of Evolutionary Theory. He also worked on geometric probability.
In 1963, he was awarded the Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal
by the Australian Academy of Science
.
He retired from ANU at the end of 1982; he stayed on as Emeritus Professor and worked on statistical methods in particular epidemiological methods and their application to psychiatry. He was awarded an honorary ScD degree from Cambridge, on 29 October 1963, and a DSc from Sydney. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1975.
Moran died after a stroke in 1988. The Moran Medal
, created in his honour, is awarded by the Australian Academy of Science
every two years for distinguished work in statistics by an Australian statistician.
For Moran's PhD students see
Moran sent his first paper to R. A. Fisher
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n statistician
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...
who made significant contributions to 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...
theory and its application to population
Population genetics
Population genetics is the study of allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four main evolutionary processes: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene flow. It also takes into account the factors of recombination, population subdivision and population...
and evolutionary genetics
Evolutionary genetics
Evolutionary genetics is the broad field of studies that attempts to account for evolution in terms of changes in gene and genotype frequencies within populations and the processes that convert the variation with populations into more or less permanent variation between species...
.
Early years
Moran was born in SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and was the only child of Herbert Michael Moran (b. 1885 in Sydney, d. 1945 in Cambridge UK), a prominent surgeon and Captain of the first Wallabies, and Eva Mann (b. 1887 in Sydney, d. 1977 in Sydney). Patrick did have five other siblings, but they all died at or shortly after birth. He completed his high school studies at St Stanislaus College
St Stanislaus College (Bathurst)
St Stanislaus' College is a Roman Catholic, day and boarding school for boys, conducted by the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul's priests and brothers...
in Bathurst
Bathurst, New South Wales
-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...
, in three and a half years instead of the normal five year course. At age 16, in 1934, he commenced study at the 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...
where he studied chemistry, zoology, maths and physics, graduating with First Class Honours in mathematics in 1937. Moran was then educated further at Cambridge University from 1937 to 1939 and from 1945 to 1946. Following graduation he went to study at Cambridge University, his supervisors noted that he was not a good mathematician and the outbreak of World War II interrupted his studies. He graduated with an MA (by proxy) from St John's College, Cambridge, on 22 January 1943. He was admitted to Balliol College, Oxford University, on 3 December 1946. He was awarded an MA, from Oxford University, by incorporation
Incorporation (academic)
Incorporation is a university academic practice—particularly at the University of Oxford where it goes back at least to 1516—of awarding a degree based on the student having an equivalent degree from another university....
in 1947.
Career
During the War Moran worked in rocket development in the Ministry of Supply and later at the External Ballistics Laboratory in Cambridge. In late 1943 he joined the Australian Scientific Liaison Office (ASLO), run by the CSIRO. He worked on applied physics including vision, camouflage, army signals, quality control, road research, infra-red detection, metrology, UHF radio propagation, general radar, bomb-fragmentation, rockets and asdics and on operational research. He also wrote some papers on the Hausdorff measureHausdorff measure
In mathematics a Hausdorff measure is a type of outer measure, named for Felix Hausdorff, that assigns a number in [0,∞] to each set in Rn or, more generally, in any metric space. The zero dimensional Hausdorff measure is the number of points in the set or ∞ if the set is infinite...
during the War.
After the War, Moran returned to Cambridge where he was supervised by Frederick Smithies and worked unsuccessfully on determining the nature of the set of points of divergence of Fourier integrals of functions in the class Lp
Lp space
In mathematics, the Lp spaces are function spaces defined using a natural generalization of the p-norm for finite-dimensional vector spaces...
, when 1 < p < 2. He gave up on this project and was employed as a Senior Research Officer at the Institute of Statistics at Oxford University. He also gave lecture courses. Patrick Moran was appointed University Lecturer in Mathematics in 1951, at Oxford, without stipend, for as long as he held the post of senior research officer in the Institute of Statistics. Interestingly, Moran freely admitted he had difficulty with simple arithmetic and wrote that, "Arithmetic I could not do".
He married in 1946 after his appointment; he and his wife Jean Mavis Frame had three children. At Oxford Moran wrote several papers on the nonlinear breeding cycle of the Canadian Lynx. He was made a lecturer at Oxford in 1951 but left the university later that year for Australia. He never acquired a PhD, "a fact he would recall with some pride in later life" recalls Hall.
On 1 January 1951, Moran was appointed foundation Professor of statistics at the National University of Canberra
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
in the Research School of Social Sciences. He worked on the stochastic study of dam theory, and on population genetics, publishing his first paper "Random processes in genetics" in the Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1958 and culminating in his 1962 book The Statistical Processes of Evolutionary Theory. He also worked on geometric probability.
In 1963, he was awarded the Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal
Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal
The Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal is awarded at most every two years by the Australian Academy of Science to a mathematician or physicist for his or her outstanding research accomplishments. It is named after Thomas Ranken Lyle, an Irish mathematical physicist who became a professor at the University of...
by the Australian Academy of Science
Australian Academy of Science
The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The Academy is modelled after the Royal Society and operates under a Royal Charter; as such it is...
.
He retired from ANU at the end of 1982; he stayed on as Emeritus Professor and worked on statistical methods in particular epidemiological methods and their application to psychiatry. He was awarded an honorary ScD degree from Cambridge, on 29 October 1963, and a DSc from Sydney. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1975.
Moran died after a stroke in 1988. The Moran Medal
Moran Medal
The Moran Medal in Statistical Sciences is awarded every two years by the Australian Academy of Science to recognize outstanding research by Australian scientists under 40 years of age in the fields of applied probability, biometrics, mathematical genetics, psychometrics, and statistics.This medal...
, created in his honour, is awarded by the Australian Academy of Science
Australian Academy of Science
The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The Academy is modelled after the Royal Society and operates under a Royal Charter; as such it is...
every two years for distinguished work in statistics by an Australian statistician.
Publications
In addition to over 170 papers, Moran wrote 4 books,- The Theory of Storage (1959; translated into Russian, 1963; Czech, 1967)
- The Statistical Processes of Evolutionary Theory (1962; translated into Russian, 1973)
- (With M.G. KendallMaurice KendallSir 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:...
) Geometrical Probability (1963; translated into Russian, 1972) - An Introduction to Probability Theory (1967)
External links
- Heyde, C.C. 1992. Patrick Alfred Pierce Moran 1917–1988. Historical Records of Australian Science 1:17–30.
For Moran's PhD students see
Moran sent his first paper to R. A. Fisher