David Victor Hinkley (10 September 1944 – 11 January 2019) was a

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

known for his research in

statistical model A statistical model is a mathematical model that embodies a set of statistical assumptions concerning the generation of sample data (and similar data from a larger population). A statistical model represents, often in considerably idealized form, ...

s and

inference Inferences are steps in reasoning, moving from premises to logical consequences; etymologically, the word '' infer'' means to "carry forward". Inference is theoretically traditionally divided into deduction and induction, a distinction that ...

and for his graduate-level books.

Early life

David Victor Hinkley was born on 10 September 1944 in

Kent, England Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. He studied mathematics and statistics at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

. He earned a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degre ...

(now

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a ...

) in 1969 under the supervision of

David R. Cox Sir David Roxbee Cox (15 July 1924 – 18 January 2022) was a British statistician and educator. His wide-ranging contributions to the field of statistics included introducing logistic regression, the proportional hazards model and the Cox ...

Career

While working on his PhD, Hinkley was appointed to a junior lectureship at the University of London. He spent the years 1969 to 1971 at Stanford University. In 1971, he returned to London, and then, in 1973, he moved to the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

where he was a member of the faculty. In 1983, Hinkley moved to the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

and became a faculty member. In 1989, he moved to lead the new Department of Statistics at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

. In 1995, he became a professor at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the ...

. He also served as chair of the Department of Statistics and Applied Probability from 1995 to 2002. He served as the Director of Undergraduate Studies from 2003 to 2007. He retired from UC Santa Barbara in 2014. In 1974 Hinkley and Cox published ''Theoretical Statistics'', a textbook on statistical inference. Hinkley also collaborated with

Bradley Efron Bradley Efron (; born May 24, 1938) is an American statistician. Efron has been president of the American Statistical Association (2004) and of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (1987–1988).Cochran, J. (1 September 2015), "ASA Lea ...

, in particular on writing a paper on

maximizing Maximization is a style of decision-making characterized by seeking the best option through an exhaustive search through alternatives. It is contrasted with satisficing, in which individuals evaluate options until they find one that is "good enough" ...

the conditional likelihood function and on using the

observed Observation is the active acquisition of information from a primary source. In living beings, observation employs the senses. In science, observation can also involve the perception and recording of data via the use of scientific instrumen ...

Fisher information In mathematical statistics, the Fisher information (sometimes simply called information) is a way of measuring the amount of information that an observable random variable ''X'' carries about an unknown parameter ''θ'' of a distribution that model ...

. Hinkley was an expert on

bootstrapping In general, bootstrapping usually refers to a self-starting process that is supposed to continue or grow without external input. Etymology Tall boots may have a tab, loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap, allowing one to use fingers ...

, a method of

computational statistics Computational statistics, or statistical computing, is the bond between statistics and computer science. It means statistical methods that are enabled by using computational methods. It is the area of computational science (or scientific comput ...

, which is largely due to Efron. With Anthony C. Davison, Hinkley wrote a widely used textbook on the subject.

Personal life and death

Hinkley married Betty Blake in 1970. Together, they had two children, Sara and Steve. They divorced in 1991. Hinkley had interests in soccer, nature and classical music. Hinkley died on January 11, 2019, at his home in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coa ...

Awards

Hinkley was an elected fellow 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 ...

, a fellow of the

Institute of Mathematical Statistics The Institute of Mathematical Statistics is an international professional and scholarly society devoted to the development, dissemination, and application of statistics and probability. The Institute currently has about 4,000 members in all parts ...

, fellow of the

Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

and fellow of the

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 responsi ...

. He was also an honorary fellow at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

and a vice president of the Royal Statistical Society. In 1984 Hinkley received the

COPSS Presidents' Award The COPSS Presidents' Award is given annually by the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies to a young statistician in recognition of outstanding contributions to the profession of statistics. The COPSS Presidents' Award is generall ...

.''COPPS Awards – Recipients
.

Selected publications

* Cox, D. R.; Hinkley, D. V. (1974). ''Theoretical Statistics''. New York: John Wiley & Sons/Halsted Press. * Davison, A. C.; Hinkley, D. V. (2006). ''Bootstrap Methods and their Application'' (8th printing). Cambridge: Cambridge Series in Statistical and Probabilistic Mathematics. *

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hinkley, David V. 1944 births 2019 deaths People from Kent Alumni of the University of Birmingham Alumni of Imperial College London Academics of Imperial College London University of Minnesota faculty University of Texas at Austin faculty People associated with the University of Oxford University of California, Santa Barbara faculty Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Fellows of the Royal Statistical Society Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science English statisticians American statisticians Annals of Statistics editors