Ralph Allan Bradley (November 28, 1923 – October 30, 2001) was a Canadian-American statistician and statistics educator, whose research lie in the fields of

design of experiments The design of experiments (DOE), also known as experiment design or experimental design, is the design of any task that aims to describe and explain the variation of information under conditions that are hypothesized to reflect the variation. ...

nonparametric statistics Nonparametric statistics is a type of statistical analysis that makes minimal assumptions about the underlying distribution of the data being studied. Often these models are infinite-dimensional, rather than finite dimensional, as in parametric s ...

sequential analysis In statistics, sequential analysis or sequential hypothesis testing is statistical analysis where the sample size is not fixed in advance. Instead data is evaluated as it is collected, and further sampling is stopped in accordance with a pre-defi ...

, and

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 ...

. He is known for the

Bradley–Terry model The Bradley–Terry model is a probability model for the outcome of pairwise comparisons between items, teams, or objects. Given a pair of items and drawn from some population, it estimates the probability that the pairwise comparison turns out ...

pairwise comparison Pairwise generally means "occurring in pairs" or "two at a time." Pairwise may also refer to: * Pairwise disjoint In set theory in mathematics and Logic#Formal logic, formal logic, two Set (mathematics), sets are said to be disjoint sets if th ...

and foundation of the Department of Statistics at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

Education and career

Bradley was born in Smith Falls, Ontario, Canada and grew up in

Wellington, Ontario Wellington is an unincorporated place and community in Prince Edward County in eastern Ontario, Canada. It has a population of 1,932 according to the 2016 Census. The community is located on the shore of both Lake Ontario and West Lake in the s ...

. He studied mathematics and physics at Queen's University, receiving an honors degree in 1944. After a stint at the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army () is the command (military formation), command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also re ...

, he returned to Queen's University and obtained an MA in 1946. He received his PhD in theoretical statistics in 1949 at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

under the supervision of

Harold Hotelling Harold Hotelling (; September 29, 1895 – December 26, 1973) was an American mathematical statistician and an influential economic theorist, known for Hotelling's law, Hotelling's lemma, and Hotelling's rule in economics, as well as Hotelling ...

. Bradley was employed at

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, ...

from 1949 to 1950 and as a faculty member at

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

from 1950 to 1958. In 1959, he moved to

to found the Department of Statistics there and stayed on until 1978 as the head of the department. In 1982, he moved to the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

as Research Professor of Statistics. Bradley retired from the

in 1992. He continued to participate in research activities afterwards and was named professor emeriti at both

and

Honors and awards

Bradley was editor of the journal

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 ...

from 1957 to 1962. He was Vice-President from 1975 to 1978 and President in 1981 of the

American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 27, 1839, and is the second-oldest continuous ...

. Bradley was a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. The statistics department of the

organizes an annual lecture in his name.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradley, Ralph A. 1923 births 2001 deaths American statisticians Canadian statisticians Queen's University at Kingston alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Virginia Tech faculty University of Georgia faculty Florida State University faculty Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Fellows of the American Statistical Association People from Smiths Falls Statistics educators