Martin Bradbury Wilk, (18 December 1922 – 19 February 2013) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

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 ...

, academic, and the former chief statistician of Canada. In 1965, together with Samuel Shapiro, he developed the

Shapiro–Wilk test The Shapiro–Wilk test is a Normality test, test of normality. It was published in 1965 by Samuel Sanford Shapiro and Martin Wilk. Theory The Shapiro–Wilk test tests the null hypothesis that a statistical sample, sample ''x''1, ..., ''x'n'' ...

, which can indicate whether a sample of numbers would be unusual if it came from a

Gaussian distribution In probability theory and statistics, a normal distribution or Gaussian distribution is a type of continuous probability distribution for a real number, real-valued random variable. The general form of its probability density function is f(x ...

. With Ramanathan Gnanadesikan he developed a number of important graphical techniques for data analysis, including the

Q–Q plot In statistics, a Q–Q plot (quantile–quantile plot) is a probability plot, a List of graphical methods, graphical method for comparing two probability distributions by plotting their ''quantiles'' against each other. A point on the plot ...

and

P–P plot In statistics, a P–P plot (probability–probability plot or percent–percent plot or P value plot) is a probability plot for assessing how closely two data sets agree, or for assessing how closely a dataset fits a particular model. It works b ...

Education and career

Born in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, he received a

bachelor of engineering A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded to a college graduate majoring in an engineering discipline at a higher education institution. In the United Kingdom, a Ba ...

degree in chemical engineering from

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

in 1945. From 1945 to 1950, he was a research chemical engineer on the Atomic Energy Project at the

National Research Council of Canada The National Research Council Canada (NRC; ) is the primary national agency of the Government of Canada dedicated to science and technology research and development. It is the largest federal research and development organization in Canada. Th ...

. From 1951 to 1955, he was a research associate, instructor, and assistant professor at

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...

, where he received a

Master of Science 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 medici ...

in statistics in 1953 and a Ph.D. in statistics in 1955 under the supervision of Oscar Kempthorne. From 1955 to 1957, he was a research associate and assistant director of the Statistical Techniques Research Group at

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 ...

. From 1959 to 1963, he was a professor and director of research in statistics 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 ...

. In 1956, he joined

Bell Telephone Laboratories 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 ...

and in 1970 joined

American Telephone and Telegraph Company AT&T Corporation, an abbreviation for its former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, was an American telecommunications company that provided voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to busi ...

. From 1976 to 1980, he was the assistant vice president-director of corporate planning. From 1980 to 1985, he was the chief statistician of Canada. In 1981, he was appointed an adjunct professor of statistics at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...

. In 1962 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. In 1999, he was made an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

for his "insightful guidance on important matters related to our country's national statistical system".

References

* *
A conversation with Martin Bradbury Wilk
, C. Genest & G. Brackstone, ''Statistical Science'', Vol. 25, No. 2. (May, 2010), pp. 258–272. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilk, Martin 1922 births 2013 deaths Canadian civil servants Academic staff of Carleton University Officers of the Order of Canada McGill University Faculty of Engineering alumni People from Montreal Rutgers University faculty Canadian statisticians Iowa State University faculty Presidents of the Statistical Society of Canada Fellows of the American Statistical Association

Education and career

See also

References