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

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 ...

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 (statistics), sample data (and similar data from a larger Statistical population, population). A statistical model repre ...

s and

inference Inferences are steps in logical 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 distinct ...

and for his graduate-level books.

Early life

David Victor Hinkley was born on 10 September 1944 in

Kent, England Kent is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Greater London to the north-west. ...

. He studied mathematics and statistics at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

. He earned a

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 ...

from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

(now

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

) in 1969 under the supervision of David R. 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 Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. In 1971, he returned to London, and then, in 1973, he moved to the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

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 university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

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 university, 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 List of oldest un ...

. 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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

. 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 in the natural sciences is an act or instance of noticing or perceiving and the acquisition of information from a primary source. In living beings, observation employs the senses. In science, observation can also involve the perception ...

Fisher information In mathematical statistics, the Fisher 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 models ''X''. Formally, it is the variance ...

. 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. Many analytical techniques are often called bootstrap methods in reference to their self-starting or self-supporting ...

, a method of

computational statistics Computational statistics, or statistical computing, is the study which is the intersection of statistics and computer science, and refers to the statistical methods that are enabled by using computational methods. It is the area of computational ...

, 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 (, meaning ) 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 Coast of the United States excepting A ...

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 a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

. He was also an honorary fellow at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

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 Statistics (from German language, Ger ...

''.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 Academics of 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 Annals of Statistics editors American mathematical statisticians