William Gemmell Cochran (15 July 1909 – 29 March 1980) was a prominent statistician. He was born in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

but spent most of his life in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Cochran studied mathematics at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

and the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

. He worked at Rothamsted Experimental Station from 1934 to 1939, when he moved to the United States. There he helped establish several departments of statistics. His longest spell in any one university was at Harvard, which he joined in 1957 and from which he retired in 1976.

Writings

Cochran wrote many articles and books. His books became standard texts: * ''Experimental Designs'' (with Gertrude Mary Cox) 1950 * * ''Statistical Methods Applied to Experiments in Agriculture and Biology'' by

George W. Snedecor George Waddel Snedecor (October 20, 1881 – February 15, 1974) was an American mathematician and statistician. He contributed to the foundations of analysis of variance, data analysis, experimental design, and statistical methodology. Snedecor ...

(Cochran contributed from the fifth (1956) edition) * ''Planning and Analysis of Observational Studies'' (edited by Lincoln E. Moses and Frederick Mosteller) 1983.

References

External links

Brief biography

ASA biography

Morris Hansen and Frederick Mosteller (1987) William Gemmell Cochran NAS Biographical Memoirs V.56
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Morris Hansen and Frederick Mosteller, "William Gemmell Cochran", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (1987) "Designing Clinical Trials"
(1961; ''Evaluation of Drug Therapy'') 1909 births 1980 deaths American statisticians British statisticians Harvard University faculty 20th-century British mathematicians Presidents of the American Statistical Association Presidents of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Presidents of the International Statistical Institute Rothamsted statisticians Fellows of the American Statistical Association Survey methodologists People from Rutherglen Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of the University of Cambridge {{US-statistician-stub