Jane Worcester (died October 8, 1989) was a

biostatistician Biostatistics (also known as biometry) are the development and application of statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experimen ...

and

epidemiologist Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidenc ...

who became the second tenured female professor, after

Martha May Eliot Martha May Eliot (April 7, 1891 – February 14, 1978), was a foremost pediatrician and specialist in public health, an assistant director for WHO, and an architect of New Deal and postwar programs for maternal and child health. Her first important ...

, and the first female chair of biostatistics in the

Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard- MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's firs ...

. Worcester graduated from

Smith College Smith College is a private liberal arts women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith and opened in 1875. It is the largest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite women's c ...

in 1931, with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, and was hired by Harvard biostatistician

Edwin B. Wilson Edwin Bidwell Wilson (April 25, 1879 – December 28, 1964) was an American mathematician, statistician, physicist and general polymath. He was the sole protégé of Yale University physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs and was mentor to MIT economist ...

to become a

human computer The term "computer", in use from the early 17th century (the first known written reference dates from 1613), meant "one who computes": a person performing mathematical calculations, before electronic computers became commercially available. A ...

at Harvard. They continued to work together on theoretical research in biostatistics until Wilson retired as chair of the department in 1945, eventually publishing 27 papers together. Worcester completed a Ph.D. in

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evide ...

at Harvard under Wilson's supervision in 1947; her dissertation was ''The Epidemiology of Streptococcal and Non-Streptococcal Respiratory Disease''. She joined the Harvard faculty, was granted tenure in 1962, and served as chair from 1973 to 1977, when she retired. She became a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

in 1960. In 1968, Smith College awarded her an honorary doctorate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Worcester, Jane Year of birth missing 1989 deaths American statisticians Women statisticians Smith College alumni Harvard School of Public Health alumni Harvard School of Public Health faculty