Robert William Maclagan Wedderburn (1947–1975) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

statistician who worked at the

Rothamsted Experimental Station Rothamsted Research, previously known as the Rothamsted Experimental Station and then the Institute of Arable Crops Research, is one of the oldest agricultural research institutions in the world, having been founded in 1843. It is located at Harp ...

. He was co-developer, with

John Nelder John Ashworth Nelder (8 October 1924 – 7 August 2010) was a British statistician known for his contributions to experimental design, analysis of variance, computational statistics, and statistical theory. Contributions Nelder's work was infl ...

, of the

generalized linear model In statistics, a generalized linear model (GLM) is a flexible generalization of ordinary linear regression. The GLM generalizes linear regression by allowing the linear model to be related to the response variable via a ''link function'' and b ...

methodology, and then expanded this subject to develop the idea of

quasi-likelihood In statistics, quasi-likelihood methods are used to estimate parameters in a statistical model when exact likelihood methods, for example maximum likelihood estimation, are computationally infeasible. Due to the wrong likelihood being used, quasi- ...

. Wedderburn was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, where he attended Fettes College, then studied for a degree and a diploma in statistics at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. He died aged 28 of

anaphylactic shock Anaphylaxis is a serious, potentially fatal allergic reaction and medical emergency that is rapid in onset and requires immediate medical attention regardless of use of emergency medication on site. It typically causes more than one of the follow ...

from an insect bite while on a canal holiday. "His colleagues remember him as someone of engaging diffidence, who would nonetheless hold his own in argument when he was sure he was right (as he usually was)," wrote

in Wedderburn's obituary.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wedderburn, Robert Scottish statisticians 1947 births 1975 deaths Deaths due to insect bites and stings People educated at Fettes College Scientists from Edinburgh 20th-century Scottish mathematicians Deaths from anaphylaxis Rothamsted Experimental Station people Alumni of the University of Cambridge