’Student’: A Statistical Biography of William Sealy Gosset

Description

"‘Student’ was the pseudonym which William Sealy Gosset used when publishing his scientific work. He was employed for the whole of his working life as a Brewer with Arthur Guinness, Son & Co. Ltd., as the firm was then called, but his publications over thirty years during the early part of the twentieth century, and his friendship with other statistical pioneers, have had a profound effect on the practical use of statistics in industry and agriculture. The account of his work and correspondence which follows has been developed from the writings of Egon Sharpe Pearson, who knew him well. After Gosset’s death in 1937, Pearson published an essay on ‘Student’ as statistician, and towards the end of his own life in 1980 he commented in typescript on his correspondence with Gosset, as well as on the earlier correspondence between his father Karl Pearson and Gosset. We have attempted to collate and edit all this material with the objective of presenting a rounded biography of a distinguished statistician, whose attractive personality shone out in everything that he did." 1. Introduction 2. Background -- Introduction -- Combination of observations -- Biometry -- Books used by Gosset -- Karl Pearson’s lectures 3. William Sealy Gosset -- Introduction -- Early statistical career -- Correspondence -- Professional activities -- Character and personality 4. Karl Pearson 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Correlation 23 4.3 Timeseries 4.4 Discrete distributions 4.5 Comment and criticism 5. Ronald A. Fisher 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Probability integral of _t_ 5.3 _Statistical methods for research workers_ 5.4 Design of experiments 5.5 Advice and argument 6. Egon S. Pearson 6.1 Historical introduction 6.2 Difficulties about _z_ and chi^2? 6.3 Order statistics and range 6.4 Random numbers and sampling experiments 6.5 Review of _Statistical methods for research workers_ 6.6 Effects of non-normality 6.7 Differences on _z_-test and design of experiments 6.8 Final comments by E. S. Pearson 7. General commentary - Notes on the text - Bibliography - Subject index - Name index