| 1 | Name: | Dr. Stephen M. Stigler | |
| Institution: | University of Chicago | ||
| Year Elected: | 2006 | ||
| Class: | 3. Social Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 303. History Since 1715 | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1941 | ||
A rare combination of the scientist and the humanist, Stephen Stigler has served as Ernest DeWitt Burton Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago since 1992. An outstanding statistician, he has explored the development of statistical method on a broad scale with fastidious research, from mathematical theory (including asymptotic distribution theory for robust estimators) to applications in the social, physical, and biological sciences. At the University of Chicago he has taught a course on the history of statistics, and he has conducted research on early American lotteries in the American Philosophical Society Library. For the National Research Council he evaluated the use of DNA in forensic science. He is also a very accomplished historian. His History of Statistics does an excellent job of placing statisticians and their contributions in proper context while mounting a penetrating account of developments in probability oriented statistics before 1900. His Statistics on the Table is a collection drawn from the more than one hundred essays he has published, sparking debate on numerous statistical topics in a sparkling and witty style. Dr. Stigler has also served the profession more broadly as president of the International Statistical Institute, president of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (1967) and has been elected to the membership of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. | |||