Judith M. Tanur is an American

statistician A statistician is a person who works with Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...

and sociologist who is Distinguished Teaching Professor Emerita of Sociology at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

.Faculty profile

, retrieved 2016-09-24. Judith Tanur was born to Edward Mark and Libbie Berman Mark on August 12, 1935, in Jersey City, New Jersey. When Tanur was young, her family moved from

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, where she was born, to

Great Neck, New York Great Neck is a region contained within Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, New York (state), New York, on Long Island, which covers a peninsula on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore and includes nine incorporated villages, among th ...

. She graduated from Great Neck High School in 1953 and entered

Antioch College Antioch College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection and began operating in 1852 as a non-secta ...

, studying psychology and statistics there, but in 1955 she transferred to

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, in part because it was closer to the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

where her future husband was studying dentistry. At the same time, she took a job at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Tanur completed a bachelor's degree in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

in 1957 and began graduate studies at Penn but became pregnant and dropped out. Eventually, she returned to graduate school, completed a master's degree in

mathematical statistics Mathematical statistics is the application of probability theory and other mathematical concepts to statistics, as opposed to techniques for collecting statistical data. Specific mathematical techniques that are commonly used in statistics inc ...

from

in 1963, and took a new job as an editor for

William Kruskal William Henry Kruskal (; October 10, 1919 – April 21, 2005) was an American mathematician and statistician. He is best known for having formulated the Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis of variance (together with W. Allen Wallis), a widely used ...

at the ''International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences''. She became a lecturer at Stony Brook in 1968, still only holding a master's degree,. and later completed her

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in sociology at Stony Brook. With S. James Press, she is the author of ''The Subjectivity of Scientists and the Bayesian Approach'' (Wiley, 2001; Dover, 2016). In 1980 she was elected as 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 designation of ASA Fellow has been a sign ...

.View/Search Fellows of the ASA
, accessed 2016-09-24. She is also a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

, a winner of the Founder's Award of the

American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 27, 1839, and is the second-oldest continuous ...

, and the 2006 winner of the Geoffrey Marshall Mentoring Award of the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanur, Judith M. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American sociologists American women statisticians American women sociologists Columbia University alumni Stony Brook University alumni Stony Brook University faculty Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 21st-century American women