A Statistical Biography Of George Udny Yule

Udny Yule’s seminal influence on time series analysis has long been recognized but much less recognized is that Yule was not only a wonderful expositor but that he had also published equally important research in an extraordinarily wide range of fields, from developing the theory of correlation and regression to providing mathematical models of evolutionary behavior, and from analyzing data on pauperism to using statistical methods to resolve cases of disputed authorship of medieval manuscripts. Yet little has been written about Yule and his work, apart from a few scattered articles, since his death in 1951 and the two obituaries that appeared in the following year. This book is an opportune moment to redress the balance and to embark on the first major study of Yule’s statistical research and subsequent legacy. Part of the text’s title is taken from Yule’s 1920 article in the Cambridge Review, ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth’, where Yule coined the phrase ‘loafers of the world’ to describe free spirits of academe, who have become an increasingly rare breed in modern university life. Udny Yule was Lecturer, then Reader, in Statistics at Cambridge University, England, from 1912 to 1930. He was a member, then Fellow, of St John’s College, at Cambridge Universty, from 1913 until his death in 1951. He was a member of the Royal Statistical Society from 1895 until his death, was awarded the Society’s Guy Medal in Gold in 1911, and was President from 1924 to 1926. Yule was awarded a C.B.E. in 1919 for his work during the First World War in the War Office and the Ministry of Food.

George Udny Yule, 1871-1951; On the association of attributes in statistics: with illustrations from the material of the childhood society; Notes on the theory of association of attributes in statistics; On the theory of correlation for any number of variables, treated by a new system of notation; On the distribution of deaths with ge when the causes of death act cumulatively and similar frequency distributions.

Written by leading statisticians and probabilists, this volume consists of 104 biographical articles on eminent contributors to statistical and probabilistic ideas born prior to the 20th Century. Among the statisticians covered are Fermat, Pascal, Huygens, Neumann, Bernoulli, Bayes, Laplace, Legendre, Gauss, Poisson, Pareto, Markov, Bachelier, Borel, and many more.

“Fascinating.” —Jill Lepore, The New Yorker A sweeping history of data and its technical, political, and ethical impact on our world. From facial recognition—capable of checking people into flights or identifying undocumented residents—to automated decision systems that inform who gets loans and who receives bail, each of us moves through a world determined by data-empowered algorithms. But these technologies didn’t just appear: they are part of a history that goes back centuries, from the census enshrined in the US Constitution to the birth of eugenics in Victorian Britain to the development of Google search. Expanding on the popular course they created at Columbia University, Chris Wiggins and Matthew L. Jones illuminate the ways in which data has long been used as a tool and a weapon in arguing for what is true, as well as a means of rearranging or defending power. They explore how data was created and curated, as well as how new mathematical and computational techniques developed to contend with that data serve to shape people, ideas, society, military operations, and economies. Although technology and mathematics are at its heart, the story of data ultimately concerns an unstable game among states, corporations, and people. How were new technical and scientific capabilities developed; who supported, advanced, or funded these capabilities or transitions; and how did they change who could do what, from what, and to whom? Wiggins and Jones focus on these questions as they trace data’s historical arc, and look to the future. By understanding the trajectory of data—where it has been and where it might yet go—Wiggins and Jones argue that we can understand how to bend it to ends that we collectively choose, with intentionality and purpose.

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Twelve British Statisticians provides a description of the lives and contributions of a dozen scientific luminaries. Their fields of expertise sometimes include disciplines that depart from statistics and display great versatility. Each statistician is a famous figure, but is especially renowned in Great Britain. The book is accessible to a wide reading audience. Each chapter focuses on the scientific contributions and personal life of a single statistician. Each chapter begins with an overview and contains a rich set of references. Current textbooks in statistics contain little information about the pioneers in the field. This book provides a historical supplement in courses on quantitative methods in the behavioral, social, and biological disciplines. The statisticians and some of their contributions covered include: 1. Karl Pearson: product-moment correlation. 2. R.A. Fisher: analysis of variance and covariance, experimental design, common sampling distributions. 3. Charles Spearman: factor analysis, theory of intelligence, mental test theory. 4. Florence Nightingale David: advocate of womenOCOs vocational rights in statistics, distinguished educator. 5. George Udny Yule: time series, contingency table analysis. 6. Maurice G. Kendall: generation of and tests for randomness, time series. 7. George E.P. Box: statistical quality control, analysis of time series. 8. William Sealy Gosset (OC StudentOCO): small sample statistical techniques, contributions to Neyman-Pearson theory. 9. Egon Sharpe Pearson: Neyman-Pearson theory, history of statistics. 10. Francis Ysidro Edgeworth: polymath mathematical psychics, editor of the Economics Journal . 11. Maurice S. Bartlett: stochastic processes, epidemiology, time series. 12. David Cox: multivariable models including covariates and treatment variables, survival rate. For author bios, photos, and a sample read, visit www.bosonbooks.com"