Robert Reuven Sokal (January 13, 1926 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populou ...

– April 9, 2012 in Stony Brook, New York) was an

n- American biostatistician and entomologist. Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system' ...

, Sokal was a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Na ...

and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

. He promoted the use of statistics in biology and co-founded the field of

numerical taxonomy Numerical taxonomy is a classification system in biological systematics which deals with the grouping by numerical methods of taxonomic units based on their character states. It aims to create a taxonomy using numeric algorithms like cluster ana ...

, together with Peter H. A. Sneath.

Life

Robert Sokal was born in 1926 in a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

family in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. In 1939, following the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, he escaped with his family to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. He earned his bachelor's degree at St. John's College in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, where he married, and from there moved with his wife Julie to the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the ...

, where he also worked as a

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

to complement his scholarship. He took his Ph.D. degree under the supervision of the well-known termite systematist Alfred E. Emerson. He was also strongly influenced by

Sewall Wright Sewall Green Wright FRS(For) Honorary FRSE (December 21, 1889March 3, 1988) was an American geneticist known for his influential work on evolutionary theory and also for his work on path analysis. He was a founder of population genetics alongsi ...

, who served on his dissertation committee. Sokal developed an interest for

statistics Statistics (from German: ''Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, indust ...

and quantitative biology. In 1959, Sokal moved to the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. ...

where he developed—initially in collaboration with

Charles Duncan Michener Charles Duncan Michener (September 22, 1918 – November 1, 2015) was an American entomologist born in Pasadena, California. He was a leading expert on bees, his ''magnum opus'' being ''The Bees of the World'' published in 2000. __TOC__ Biograph ...

—quantitative techniques for classifying organisms and building dendrograms, which later came to be called

methods. At the

State University of New York The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by ...

, Stony Brook, in collaboration with F. James Rohlf, Sokal worked on new statistical methods for the analysis of geographic variation. His interests shifted to

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

and

population genetics Population genetics is a subfield of genetics that deals with genetic differences within and between populations, and is a part of evolutionary biology. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as adaptation, speciation, and pop ...

, and he directed studies on the population history of Europe as inferred from genetic and ethnohistorical data. Along with Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Sokal pioneered the comparative study of linguistic and genetic variation.

Awards and honors

* Fellow,

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respon ...

, 1983 * Fellow,

, 1986 *

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

, 1975, 1983 * Member,

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

, 1987 * Doctor of Science (honorary),

University of Crete The University of Crete (UoC; Greek: Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης) is a multi-disciplinary, research-oriented institution in Crete, Greece, located in the cities of Rethymno (official seat) and Heraklion, and one of the country's most ac ...

, Iraklion, 1990 * Distinguished Statistical Ecologist Award, International Association for Ecology, 1994 * Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award,

American Association of Physical Anthropologists The American Association of Biological Anthropologists (AABA) is an international professional society of biological anthropologists, based in the United States. The organization publishes the ''American Journal of Physical Anthropology'', a pee ...

, 2004

Works

Selected scientific bibliography (original articles)

* * Sokal R.R. (1988) "Genetic, geographic, and linguistic distances in Europe." ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA'' 85:1722-1726. * Barbujani G. and Sokal R.R. (1990) "Zones of sharp genetic change in Europe are also linguistic boundaries." ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA'' 87:1816-1819. * Sokal RR, Oden NL, Wilson C. (1991) "Genetic evidence for the spread of agriculture in Europe by demic diffusion." ''Nature'' 351:143-145. * Chen J, Sokal RR, Ruhlen M. (1995) "Worldwide analysis of genetic and linguistic relationships of human populations." ''Human Biology'' 67:595-612. * Barbujani G, Sokal RR, Oden NL. (1995) "Indo-European origins: a computer-simulation test of five hypotheses." ''American Journal of Physical Anthropology'' 96:109-132. * Sokal R.R., Oden N.L., Rosenberg M.S., Thomson B.A.(2000) "Cancer incidences in Europe related to mortalities, and ethnohistoric, genetic, and geographic distances." ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA'' 97:6067-6072.

Selected scientific bibliography (books)

* Sokal R.R. and Sneath P.H.E. (1963) ''Principles of Numerical Taxonomy.'' Freeman & Co., San Francisco * Sneath P.H.E. and Sokal R.R. (1973) ''Principles of Numerical Taxonomy.'' Freeman & Co., San Francisco * Sokal R.R. and Rohlf F.J. (1987) ''Introduction to Biostatistics.'' Freeman & Co., New York * Sokal R.R. and Rohlf F.J. (2012) ''Biometry.'' 4th ed. Freeman & Co., New York

References

External links

Oral history interview with Robert Sokal
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Gratz College Holocaust Oral History Archive
National Academy Member Profile
* Michael A. Bell
Robert Reuven Sokal, 1926-2012
Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University * Guido Barbujani
Walking with Robert Sokal
''

Human Biology Human biology is an interdisciplinary area of academic study that examines humans through the influences and interplay of many diverse fields such as genetics, evolution, physiology, anatomy, epidemiology, anthropology, ecology, nutrition, populat ...

'', 84(5):481-8 (October 2012) * Douglas J. Futuyma
Robert R. Sokal (1926–2012)
''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

'', 336:816 (18 May 2012) * Michael Bell
Robert Reuven Sokal, 1926-2012
''Evolutionary Anthropology'', 21:87–88 (2012), on

Wiley Online Library John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, in ...

University obituaries: Robert R. Sokal
The University of Chicago Magazine, Jul-Aug 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sokal, Robert R. 1926 births 2012 deaths American anthropologists American statisticians Biostatisticians Jewish American scientists Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 21st-century American Jews