Frank Wilcoxon (2 September 1892 – 18 November 1965) was a

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

and

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 the development of several

statistical tests A statistical hypothesis test is a method of statistical inference used to decide whether the data provide sufficient evidence to reject a particular hypothesis. A statistical hypothesis test typically involves a calculation of a test statistic. T ...

Education and career

Frank Wilcoxon was born to American parents on 2 September 1892 in

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

.Bradley, R.A. (1966) ''Obituary: Frank Wilcoxon.'' Biometrics 22(1): 192–194 He grew up in

Catskill, New York Catskill is a town in the southeastern section of Greene County, New York, United States. The population was 11,298 at the 2020 census, the largest town in the county. The western part of the town is in the Catskill Park. The town contains a v ...

, but received part of his education in England. In 1917, he graduated from Pennsylvania Military College with a

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

After the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he entered graduate studies, first at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

, where he was awarded an

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

in 1921, and then at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, gaining 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 ...

physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mech ...

in 1924. Wilcoxon entered a research career, working at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research from 1925 to 1941. He then moved to the

Atlas Powder Company Atlas Powder Company was an American explosives and chemicals company. It was one of the two companies that emerged out of a court-ordered breakup of the explosives monopoly of DuPont (1802–2017), Du Pont Powder Company, the explosives and gun ...

, where he designed and directed the Control Laboratory, before joining the

American Cyanamid Company American Cyanamid Company was an American manufacturing conglomerate. It began as a fertilizer company and added many additional lines of business before merging with American Home Products in 1994. The combined company sold off most of its di ...

in 1943. During this time he developed an interest in inferential statistics through the study of

Ronald Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was a British polymath who was active as a mathematician, statistician, biologist, geneticist, and academic. For his work in statistics, he has been described as "a genius who a ...

's 1925 text, ''

Statistical Methods for Research Workers ''Statistical Methods for Research Workers'' is a classic book on statistics, written by the statistician R. A. Fisher. It is considered by some to be one of the 20th century's most influential books on statistical methods, together with his '' T ...

''. He retired in 1957.

Research

Over his career Wilcoxon published over 70 papers.Karas, J. & Savage, I.R. (1967) ''Publications of Frank Wilcoxon (1892–1965).'' Biometrics 23(1): 1–10 His best-known paperWilcoxon, F. (1945) ''Individual Comparisons by Ranking Methods.'' Biometrics Bulletin 1: 80–83. contained the two new statistical tests that still bear his name, the

Wilcoxon rank-sum test Wilcoxon is a surname, and may refer to: * Charles Wilcoxon, drum educator * Henry Wilcoxon, an actor * Frank Wilcoxon, chemist and statistician, inventor of two non-parametric tests for statistical significance In statistical hypothesis testing, ...

and the

Wilcoxon signed-rank test The Wilcoxon signed-rank test is a non-parametric rank test for statistical hypothesis testing used either to test the location of a population based on a sample of data, or to compare the locations of two populations using two matched samples., ...

. These are

non-parametric Nonparametric statistics is a type of statistical analysis that makes minimal assumptions about the underlying distribution of the data being studied. Often these models are infinite-dimensional, rather than finite dimensional, as in parametric sta ...

alternatives to the unpaired and paired Student's ''t''-tests, respectively. He died on 18 November 1965.

References

External links

* Brookes, E. Bruce (2001
Tales of Statisticians: Frank Wilcoxon.
In ''Acquiring Statistics:Techniques and Concepts for Historians.'' (accessed 26 November 2005) * Portraits of Statistician
Frank Wilcoxon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilcoxon, Frank 1892 births 1965 deaths American physical chemists American statisticians Irish statisticians Widener University alumni Rutgers University alumni Cornell University alumni Fellows of the American Statistical Association 20th-century American chemists