Louis Israel Dublin (November 1, 1882 – March 7, 1969) was a

Jewish American American Jews (; ) or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research, approximately two thirds of American Jews identify as Ashkenazi, 3% id ...

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 ...

. As vice president and statistician of the

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, w ...

, he promoted progressive and socially useful insurance underwriting policies. As a scholar, Dublin was an important figure in the establishment of

demography Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examine ...

as a social-scientific discipline in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

during the 1920s and 1930s. Dublin was interested in

eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...

but as a Jew of recent immigrant extraction criticized eugenicists for equating biological superiority with

Nordic Nordic most commonly refers to: * Nordic countries, the northern European countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and their North Atlantic territories * Scandinavia, a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern ...

origins. Dublin was born in

Kovno Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. He came to the U.S. in 1886 with his parents Max and Sarah (Rosensweig). Dublin obtained his bachelor's in 1901 at

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

. He earned his Ph.D. at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1904. He married Augusta Salik on April 5, 1908. Dublin taught at

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

as a lecturer in vital statistics. In 1924 served as

president of the American Statistical Association The president of the American Statistical Association is the head of the American Statistical Association (ASA). According to the association's bylaws, the president is an officer, and a member of the board of directors and of the executive committ ...

. He died in Winter Park, Orange County, Florida at the age of 86.

Body Mass Index

While serving as a vice president at Met Life Insurance and as a statistician Dublin developed a height for weight table based on longevity of life insurance holders in the early 1940s. These tables would later develop into the Body Mass Index developed by

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 ...

's cholesterol and heart disease physiology researcher

Ancel Keys Ancel Benjamin Keys (January 26, 1904 – November 20, 2004) was an American physiologist who studied the influence of diet on health. In particular, he hypothesized that replacing dietary saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat reduced c ...

in 1972. Keys intended the BMI to be used only for the study of groups and not to be applied to individuals. The index is statistically very limited in usefulness as covered a very limited demographic of people who were able to afford life insurance and who were mostly white.

Major works

*Louis Israel Dublin, Alfred J. Lotka: ''The Money Value of a Man'' (Public Health in America Series). New York : Arno Press, 1977 (Repr. of the 1930 ed. by the Ronald Press Co., New York). *with Lee K. Frankel and Miles M. Dawson, ''Workingmen's Insurance in Europe'', 19101 Who's Who *with Lee K. Frankel, ''Principles of Life Insurance'', 1911 *''Mortality Statistics of Insured Wage Earners and Their Families'', 1919 *Louis I. Dublin, ''To Be or Not to Be: a Study of Suicide'', 1933. Harrison Smith and Robert Hass, New York. *Louis I. Dublin, ''A Family of Thirty Million: The Story of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company'', 1943. *Louis I. Dublin, ''The Facts of Life: From Birth to Death'', New York: The Macmillan Company, 1951. *''A 40 Year Campaign Against

Tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

'', 1952 *Louis I. Dublin, ''Suicide: a Sociological and Statistical Study'', 1963. Ronald Press Company, New York.

Other works

*Louis I. Dublin, After Eighty Years (autobiography) University of Florida Press, Gainesville 1966, pp. 243 *Louis I. Dublin, "Home-Making and Careers," ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 ...

'', 138: 335–43, September 1926. *Louis I. Dublin and Jessamine S. Whitney (April 1921). "The Costs of Tuberculosis" ''American Review of Tuberculosis'' 5:178-184. *Collected papers at the Archives, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland

References

Inline

General

* * * * Marquis, Albert Nelson, ed. ''Who’s Who in America, a Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States'', 1926–1927, vol. 14, Chicago: The A.N. Marquis Company, 1926, 624.

External links

American Statistical Association's biography (PDF file)Finding Aid to the Louis I. Dublin PapersLibrary of Congress listing of Louis I. Dublin publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dublin, Louis Israel 1882 births 1969 deaths American statisticians Columbia University alumni Fellows of the American Statistical Association Presidents of the American Statistical Association Jewish scientists Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States 20th-century American Jews