Robert (Roy) Charles Geary (April 11, 1896 – February 8, 1983) was an Irish mathematician,

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 ...

and founder of both the Central Statistics Office and the

Economic and Social Research Institute The Economic and Social Research Institute (Institiúid Taighde Eacnamaíochta agus Sóisialta in Irish) is an Irish research institute founded in 1960 to provide evidence-based research used to inform public policy debate and decision-making. ...

. Geary is known for his contributions to the estimation of errors-in-variables models, Geary's C, the

Geary–Khamis dollar The international dollar (int'l dollar or intl dollar, symbols Int'l$., Intl$., Int$), also known as Geary–Khamis dollar (symbols G–K$ or GK$), is a hypothetical unit of currency that has the same purchasing power parity that the U.S. doll ...

, the

Stone–Geary utility function The Stone–Geary utility function takes the form U = \prod_ (q_i-\gamma_i)^ where U is utility, q_i is consumption of good i, and \beta and \gamma are parameters. For \gamma_i = 0, the Stone–Geary function reduces to the generalised Cobb–Doug ...

, and Geary's theorem, which has that if the sample mean is distributed independently of the sample variance, then the population is distributed normally.

Education and career

Geary was born in

Dublin, Ireland Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

and received his secondary education at the O'Connell School. He went on to study mathematics and mathematical physics at the

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

, where he obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in 1916 and 1918, respectively. He was awarded a scholarship to continue his study at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he attended lectures by

Émile Borel Félix Édouard Justin Émile Borel (; 7 January 1871 – 3 February 1956) was a French people, French mathematician and politician. As a mathematician, he was known for his founding work in the areas of measure theory and probability. Biograp ...

Élie Cartan Élie Joseph Cartan (; 9 April 1869 – 6 May 1951) was an influential French mathematician who did fundamental work in the theory of Lie groups, differential systems (coordinate-free geometric formulation of PDEs), and differential geometry. He ...

Édouard Goursat Édouard Jean-Baptiste Goursat (21 May 1858 – 25 November 1936) was a French mathematician, now remembered principally as an expositor for his ''Cours d'analyse mathématique'', which appeared in the first decade of the twentieth century. It s ...

Henri Lebesgue Henri Léon Lebesgue (; ; June 28, 1875 – July 26, 1941) was a French mathematician known for his Lebesgue integration, theory of integration, which was a generalization of the 17th-century concept of integration—summing the area between an ...

, and

Paul Langevin Paul Langevin (23 January 1872 – 19 December 1946) was a French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the '' Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes'', an anti-fascist ...

. Geary returned to Ireland in 1921, and was offered a lecturer position in mathematics at the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

(1922–23) and in applied economics at

Cambridge University 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 ...

(1946–47). He was a statistician in the Department of Industry and Commerce between 1923 and 1957. The

National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) () is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called '' constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under the Irish Universities Act 1908, and signifi ...

conferred a Doctorate of Science on him in 1938. Geary was the founding director of the

Central Statistics Office (Ireland) The Central Statistics Office (CSO; ) is the statistical agency responsible for the gathering of "information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions" in the Republic of Ireland (it does not operate in Northern Ireland), ...

(in 1949). He was head of the

National Accounts National accounts or national account systems (NAS) are the implementation of complete and consistent accounting Scientific technique, techniques for measuring the economic activity of a nation. These include detailed underlying measures that ...

Branch of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

from 1957 to 1960. He was the founding director of the

(ESRI) in 1960 where he stayed till his retirement in 1966. He was an honorary fellow 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 ...

and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. In 1981, he won the Boyle Medal. To honour his contributions to social sciences, the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy was named after him in 2005.

Works

* ''Europe's Future in Figures'', North Holland (1962), ASIN: B002RB858E * ''Elements of Linear Programming with Economic Applications'' (with J. E. Spencer), Lubrecht & Cramer Ltd (June 1973), * ''Exercises in Mathematical Economics and Econometrics, with Outlines of Theory'' (with J. E. Spencer), London: Charles Griffin & Co (1987),

References

External sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Geary, Roy 1896 births 1983 deaths 20th-century Irish mathematicians University of Paris alumni Irish statisticians Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics 20th-century Irish economists Economic and Social Research Institute Fellows of the American Statistical Association Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland Fellows of the Econometric Society Irish expatriates in France Alumni of University College Dublin