Maurice Stevenson Bartlett FRS (18 June 1910 – 8 January 2002) was an English

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 ...

who made particular contributions to the analysis of

data Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted for ...

with spatial and temporal patterns. He is also known for his work in the theory of

statistical inference Statistical inference is the process of using data analysis to infer properties of an underlying probability distribution.Upton, G., Cook, I. (2008) ''Oxford Dictionary of Statistics'', OUP. . Inferential statistical analysis infers properties of ...

and in

multivariate analysis Multivariate statistics is a subdivision of statistics encompassing the simultaneous observation and analysis of more than one outcome variable, i.e., '' multivariate random variables''. Multivariate statistics concerns understanding the differ ...

Biography

Born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Bartlett was raised in a poor family but won a scholarship to

Latymer Upper School Latymer Upper School is a public school in Hammersmith, London, England, on King Street. It derives from a charity school, and is part of the same 1624 Latymer Foundation, from a bequest by the English legal official Edward Latymer. There ...

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

, where he was inspired to the study of

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

by a chapter in Hall and Knight's ''Algebra''. In 1929, he won a scholarship to

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the R ...

where he read

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 ...

, graduating with the rank of wrangler. He attended lectures on statistics by John Wishart, on relativity by

Arthur Eddington Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, (28 December 1882 – 22 November 1944) was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was also a philosopher of science and a populariser of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the lu ...

and on

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

Paul Dirac Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac ( ; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English mathematician and Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist who is considered to be one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Dirac laid the foundations for bot ...

. In one of his lectures Wishart described his geometric derivation of the

Wishart distribution In statistics, the Wishart distribution is a generalization of the gamma distribution to multiple dimensions. It is named in honor of John Wishart (statistician), John Wishart, who first formulated the distribution in 1928. Other names include Wi ...

. Overnight Bartlett worked out a proof using characteristic functions. Bartlett was Wishart's first post-graduate student and they wrote two papers together. This was the beginning of Bartlett's involvement with multivariate analysis. During his Queens years, he rowed for the college. In 1933, Bartlett was recruited by

Egon Pearson Egon Sharpe Pearson (11 August 1895 – 12 June 1980) was one of three children of Karl Pearson and Maria, née Sharpe, and, like his father, a British statistician. Career Pearson was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College ...

to the new statistics department at

University College, London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. Pearson was already working with

Jerzy Neyman Jerzy Spława-Neyman (April 16, 1894 – August 5, 1981; ) was a Polish mathematician and statistician who first introduced the modern concept of a confidence interval into statistical hypothesis testing and, with Egon Pearson, revised Ronald Fis ...

. Also in the college were

Ronald A. 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 ...

and J. B. S. Haldane. Bartlett was stimulated by all of them, most of all by the work of Fisher, criticising some of it (for example,

fiducial inference Fiducial inference is one of a number of different types of statistical inference. These are rules, intended for general application, by which conclusions can be drawn from samples of data. In modern statistical practice, attempts to work with ...

) while developing other parts (for example conditional inference). Relations between the two men fluctuated; sometimes Bartlett was in Fisher's good books, but often not. In 1934, Bartlett became statistician at the

Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British Chemical industry, chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. Its headquarters were at Millbank in London. ICI was listed on the London Stock Exchange ...

(ICI) agricultural research station at

Jealott's Hill Jealott's Hill is a village in the county of Berkshire, England, within the civil parish of Warfield. The settlement is on the A3095 road approximately north of Bracknell. The nearest railway station is in . History The name of the hill is re ...

. Not only did he deal with practical problems but he worked on statistical theory, as well as on problems in

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...

but he became interested in the characterisation of

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...

. He remembered Jealott's Hill as the best working environment of his career. Bartlett left ICI for the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1938 but at the outset of

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 ...

was mobilised into the

Ministry of Supply The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK government formed on 1 August 1939 by the Ministry of Supply Act 1939 ( 2 & 3 Geo. 6. c. 38) to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Ministe ...

, conducting

rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

research alongside Frank Anscombe, David Kendall and Pat Moran. After the war Bartlett's renewed Cambridge work focused on

time-series analysis In mathematics, a time series is a series of data points indexed (or listed or graphed) in time order. Most commonly, a time series is a sequence taken at successive equally spaced points in time. Thus it is a sequence of discrete-time data. Ex ...

and

stochastic process In probability theory and related fields, a stochastic () or random process is a mathematical object usually defined as a family of random variables in a probability space, where the index of the family often has the interpretation of time. Sto ...

. With Jo Moyal he planned a large book on probability, but the collaboration did not work out and Bartlett went ahead and published his own book on stochastic processes. He made a number of visits to the United States. In 1947 he became professor of mathematical statistics at the School of Mathematics at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

where he not only developed his interests in

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...

but also served as an able and active administrator. In 1960, he took up the chair of statistics at

before serving the last eight years of his academic life as professor of biomathematics 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 ...

. He retired in 1975. After his retirement Bartlett remained active in statistics, visiting the Institute of Advanced Studies at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

several times. He had married Sheila, daughter of C. E. Chapman, in 1957, the couple parenting a daughter. Bartlett died in

Exmouth Exmouth is a harbor, port town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and seaside resort situated on the east bank of the mouth of the River Exe, southeast of Exeter. In 2011 it had a population of 34,432, making Exmouth the List of settl ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

. Bartlett is known for Bartlett's method for estimating power spectra and Bartlett's test for

homoscedasticity In statistics, a sequence of random variables is homoscedastic () if all its random variables have the same finite variance; this is also known as homogeneity of variance. The complementary notion is called heteroscedasticity, also known as hete ...

Honours

* Rayleigh Prize, (1933); * Guy Medals in Silver (1952) and Gold (1969) 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. ...

; *President of the Manchester Statistical Society, (1959–1960); *Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, (1961); *President of the

(1966); *Honorary Member of the

International Statistical Institute The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a professional association of statisticians. At a meeting of the Jubilee Meeting of the Royal Statistical Society, statisticians met and formed the agreed statues of the International Statistical ...

, (1980); *Foreign Associate of the

U.S. 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 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

, (1993); *

D.Sc. A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

s from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

(1966) and the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hu ...

(1976).

References

Works

Books

*''An Introduction to Stochastic Processes'', (1955) ** *''Stochastic Population Models in Ecology and Epidemiology'', (1960) *''Essays in Probability and Statistics'', (1962) *''Probability, Statistics and Time'', (1975) *''The Statistical Analysis of Spatial Pattern'', (1976) *''Selected Papers of M. S. Bartlett'' 3 vols. edited by R.G. Stanton, E.D. Johnson, D.S. Meek. Winnipeg : Charles Babbage Research Centre (1989).

Selected papers

* (1933) with John Wishart, The distribution of second order moment statistics in a normal system. ''Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc.'' 28, 455–459. * (1933) On the theory of statistical regression. ''Proc. Royal Soc. Edinburgh'', 53, 260–283. * (1933) Probability and chance in the theory of statistics
''Proc. Royal Soc. Lond. A'' 141
518–534. * (1934) The vector representation of a sample. ''Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc.'', 30, 327–340. * (1936) Statistical information and properties of sufficiency. ''Proc. Royal Soc. Lond. A'' 154, 124–137. * (1937) Properties of sufficiency and statistical tests. ''Proc. Royal Soc. Lond. A'', 160, 268–282. (reprinted with an introduction by D. A. S. Fraser S. Kotz & N. L. Johnson (eds) ''Breakthroughs in Statistics, volume 1''. Springer, New York. 1992.) * (1938) Methods of estimating mental factors. ''Nature'', ''141'', 609–610. * (1939) A note on tests of significance in multivariate analysis, in ''Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society'' * (1941) The statistical significance of canonical correlation. ''

Biometrika ''Biometrika'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Oxford University Press for the Biometrika Trust. The editor-in-chief is Paul Fearnhead (Lancaster University). The principal focus of this journal is theoretical statistics. It was ...

''. * (1947) The use of transformations. ''

Biometrics Biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics and features. Biometric authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. It is also used t ...

''. * (1948) Internal and external factor analysis. ''

British Journal of Psychiatry The ''British Journal of Psychiatry'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering all branches of psychiatry with a particular emphasis on the clinical aspects of each topic. The journal is owned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and publish ...

''. * (1949) Fitting a straight line when both variables are subjects to error. ''

''. * (1949) The statistical significance of "dispersed hits" in card-guessing experiments. ''Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research'', ''48'', 336–338. * (1950) Tests of significance in multivariate analysis. ''British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology''. * (1950) Tests of significance in factor analysis. ''British Journal of Psychology'', ''3'', 77–85.

Autobiography

Ingram Olkin Ingram Olkin (July 23, 1924 – April 28, 2016) was a professor emeritus and chair of statistics and education at Stanford University and the Stanford Graduate School of Education. He is known for developing statistical analysis for evaluatin ...

(1989) A Conversation with Maurice Bartlett, ''Statistical Science,'' 4, 151–163. *"Chance and Change" in J. Gani (ed) (1982) ''The Making of Statisticians,'' New York: Springer-Verlag. Several statisticians, including Bartlett, give their life stories.

External links

ISI Newsletter Note by D. R. Cox
*
Royal Society citation
For Bartlett's correspondence with Fisher see

* ttps://archive.today/20121129232320/http://www.library.adelaide.edu.au/digitised/fisher/corres/bartlett/ Correspondence of Sir R. A. Fisher: Calendar of Correspondence with M.S. Bartlett There are photographs at
Maurice Stevenson Bartlett
on th

page.
Royal Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartlett, M. S. 1910 births 2002 deaths People from Chiswick English statisticians Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Imperial Chemical Industries people Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester Academics of University College London Fellows of the American Statistical Association People educated at Latymer Upper School British mathematical statisticians Spatial statisticians 20th-century English mathematicians Academics of the University of Oxford