John Wilder Tukey (; June 16, 1915 – July 26, 2000) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

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 ...

, best known for the development of the fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm and

box plot In descriptive statistics, a box plot or boxplot is a method for demonstrating graphically the locality, spread and skewness groups of numerical data through their quartiles. In addition to the box on a box plot, there can be lines (which are ca ...

. The Tukey range test, the Tukey lambda distribution, the Tukey test of additivity, and the Teichmüller–Tukey lemma all bear his name. He is also credited with coining the term '' bit'' and the first published use of the word ''

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

''.

Biography

Tukey was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1915, to a Latin teacher father and a private tutor. He was mainly taught by his mother and attended regular classes only for certain subjects like French. Tukey obtained a B.A. in 1936 and M.S. in 1937 in chemistry, from Brown University, before moving to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where in 1939 he received a PhD in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "On denumerability in topology". During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Tukey worked at the Fire Control Research Office and collaborated with Samuel Wilks and William Cochran. He is claimed to have helped design the U-2 spy plane. After the war, he returned to Princeton, dividing his time between the university and AT&T Bell Laboratories. In 1962, Tukey was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. He became a full professor at 35 and founding chairman of the Princeton statistics department in 1965. Among many contributions to

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.American Statistical Association that produced a report critiquing the statistical methodology of the Kinsey Report, ''Statistical Problems of the Kinsey Report on Sexual Behavior in the Human Male'', which summarized "A random selection of three people would have been better than a group of 300 chosen by Mr. Kinsey". From 1960 to 1980, Tukey helped design the NBC television network polls used to predict and analyze elections. He was also a consultant to the Educational Testing Service, the Xerox Corporation, and Merck & Company. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Tukey played a key role in the design and conduct of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. He was awarded the

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...

by President Nixon in 1973. He was awarded the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1982 "For his contributions to the spectral analysis of random processes and the

fast Fourier transform A fast Fourier transform (FFT) is an algorithm that computes the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of a sequence, or its inverse (IDFT). A Fourier transform converts a signal from its original domain (often time or space) to a representation in ...

(FFT)

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...

". Tukey retired in 1985. He died in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on July 26, 2000.

Scientific contributions

Early in his career Tukey worked on developing statistical methods for computers at

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

, where he coined the word ''bit'' in 1947. His statistical interests were many and varied. He is particularly remembered for his development with James Cooley of the Cooley–Tukey FFT algorithm. In 1970, he contributed significantly to what is today known as the jackknife—also termed Quenouille–Tukey jackknife. He introduced the

in his 1977 book, "Exploratory Data Analysis". Tukey's range test, the Tukey lambda distribution, Tukey's test of additivity, Tukey's lemma, and the Tukey window all bear his name. He is also the creator of several little-known methods such as the trimean and median-median line, an easier alternative to linear regression. In 1974, he developed, with Jerome H. Friedman, the concept of the projection pursuit.

Data analysis and foundations of data science

John Tukey contributed greatly to statistical practice and data analysis in general. In fact, some regard John Tukey as the father of data science. At the very least, he pioneered many of the key foundations of what came later to be known as data science. Making sense of data has a long history and has been addressed by statisticians, mathematicians, scientists, and others for many many years. During the 1960s, Tukey challenged the dominance at the time of what he called "confirmatory data analysis", statistical analyses driven by rigid mathematical configurations. Tukey emphasized the importance of having a more flexible attitude towards data analysis and of exploring data carefully to see what structures and information might be contained therein. He called this "exploratory data analysis" (EDA). In many ways, EDA was a precursor to data science. Tukey also realized the importance of computer science to EDA. Graphics are an integral part of EDA methodology and, while much of Tukey's work focused on static displays (such as box plots) that could be drawn by hand, he realized that computer graphics would be much more effective for studying multivariate data. PRIM-9, the first program for viewing multivariate data, was conceived by him during the early 1970s. This coupling of data analysis and computer science is what is now called data science. Tukey articulated the important distinction between

exploratory data analysis In statistics, exploratory data analysis (EDA) is an approach of data analysis, analyzing data sets to summarize their main characteristics, often using statistical graphics and other data visualization methods. A statistical model can be used or ...

and confirmatory data analysis, believing that much statistical methodology placed too great an emphasis on the latter. Though he believed in the utility of separating the two types of analysis, he pointed out that sometimes, especially in

natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

, this was problematic and termed such situations uncomfortable science. A. D. Gordon offered the following summary of Tukey's principles for statistical practice: Tukey's lectures were described to be unusual. McCullagh described his lecture given in London in 1977:

Coining the term ''bit''

While working with

John von Neumann John von Neumann ( ; ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer. Von Neumann had perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time, in ...

on early computer designs, Tukey introduced the word '' bit'' as a portmanteau of ''binary digit''. The term ''bit'' was first used in an article by Claude Shannon in 1948.

Publications

* * * * * * * * * * * * * ; ''The collected works of John W Tukey'', edited by William S. Cleveland * * * * * * * * ;About John Tukey *
Interview of John Tukey about his experience at Princeton

References

External links

Royal Society obit. by Peter McCullagh

John W. Tukey: His Life and Professional Contributions
published in ''The Annals of Statistics''
John Wilder Tukey (1915–2000)
in '' Notices of the American Mathematical Society''
Memories of John Tukey

by Mary Bittrich *
"Remembering John W. Tukey"
special issue of '' Statistical Science'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Tukey, John Wilder 1915 births 2000 deaths People from Massachusetts National Medal of Science laureates Presidents of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Fellows of the American Statistical Association IEEE Medal of Honor recipients American statisticians Survey methodologists Exploratory data analysis Princeton University faculty Princeton University alumni Brown University alumni Burials at Princeton Cemetery Foreign members of the Royal Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 20th-century American mathematicians Computational statisticians Members of the American Philosophical Society