Mavis Bowler Carroll (October 12, 1917 – March 7, 2009) was an American

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 pioneered the industrial use of statistics in her work at

General Foods General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the United States by C. W. Post, Charles William (C. W.) Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The company changed its name to "General Foods" in 1929, a ...

. Carroll finished high school at age 16 and attended the

New Jersey College for Women Douglass Residential College is a non-degree-granting program established in 2007 and open to Rutgers undergraduates at any of the degree-granting schools of Rutgers University-New Brunswick. It replaced the liberal arts degree-granting Douglas ...

on a scholarship. She played on the school basketball team, and earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics there in 1938. She worked as a

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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 ...

and at the Squibb Institute for Medical Research in

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.General Foods General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the United States by C. W. Post, Charles William (C. W.) Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The company changed its name to "General Foods" in 1929, a ...

Research Center, where she became Section Head in 1958 and, by the 1960s, the head of their division of mathematical and statistical services. Her work at General Foods included the design and analysis of taste tests, with each variation of a food product typically being tested by a panel of 50 tasters (evenly split by gender) who rated the foods on a scale of +3 to −3. In order to keep the total number of tasters manageable, a careful

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was needed to control the number of different food variations to be tested. Carroll was secretary of the American Society for Testing and Materials for 1960 to 1962. In 1971, Carroll was elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The designation of ASA Fellow has been a sign ...

. Carroll died of pneumonia on March 7, 2009, in

Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, eighth-most populous city in the st ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, Mavis Bowler 1917 births 2009 deaths American statisticians American women statisticians Fellows of the American Statistical Association Deaths from pneumonia in North Carolina Mathematicians from New Jersey General Foods