William Gemmell Cochran

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William Gemmell Cochran (15 July 1909 – 29 March 1980) was a prominent statistician. He was born in Scotland but spent most of his life in the United States.

William G. Cochran
Cochran in 1952
Born(1909-07-15)July 15, 1909
DiedMarch 29, 1980(1980-03-29) (aged 70)
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of Glasgow
University of Cambridge
Known forCochran's C test
Cochran's Q test
Cochran's theorem
Cochran–Mantel–Haenszel statistics
Scientific career
FieldsStatistics
InstitutionsRothamsted Experimental Station
Iowa State University
North Carolina State University
Johns Hopkins University
Harvard University
Academic advisorsJohn Wishart
Doctoral studentsDonald Rubin
Calvin Zippin
Helen Abbey
Ralph B. D'Agostino

Cochran studied mathematics at the University of Glasgow and the University of Cambridge. He worked at Rothamsted Experimental Station from 1934 to 1939, when he moved to the United States. There he helped establish several departments of statistics. His longest spell in any one university was at Harvard, which he joined in 1957 and from which he retired in 1976.

Writings

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Cochran wrote many articles and books. His books became standard texts:

  • Experimental Designs (with Gertrude Mary Cox) 1950 ISBN 0-471-54567-8
  • Cochran, William G. (1977). Sampling Techniques (Third ed.). Wiley. ISBN 0-471-16240-X.
  • Statistical Methods Applied to Experiments in Agriculture and Biology by George W. Snedecor (Cochran contributed from the fifth (1956) edition) ISBN 0-8138-1561-4
  • Planning and Analysis of Observational Studies (edited by Lincoln E. Moses and Frederick Mosteller) 1983.

References

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