Samuel S. Wilks: The Statistician

By Kristian Wilks – Lake Shore

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=samuel+stanley+wilks&lk=3

The Early Years• Born on June 17th, 1906 in Little Elm, Texas– Parents: Chance C. and Bertha May Gammon Wilks– Siblings: Syrrel and William Wilks

• Lived on a 250-acre farm– Loved hunting and fishing as a child

• Built a radio at the age of 12

http://www.capeoldradio.com/cor_radio.php?radio_box=25348

College Life

• Studied industrial arts at North Texas State Teachers College as an undergraduate

• Began teaching mathematics and manual arts at a high school

College Life

http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/education2.shtml

College Life

• Began studying mathematics at the University of Texas– Received his master’s degree in 1928

• Left Texas to study probability and statistics at the University of Iowa– Received his doctorate in 1931

College Life

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Life After Graduation

• Awarded A National Research Council Fellowship by Columbia University for mathematics

• Served on the National Defense Research Committee– Award President’s Certificate of Merit

Life After Graduation

Life After Graduation

• Went on to marry Gena Orr in 1931– Had a son named Stanley Neal Wilks

• Became an NRC Research Fellow working at…– University of London– University of Cambridge

• Went to teach Mathematics at Princeton

Life After Graduation

Main Contributions

• “Blue-book”• “Gray-book”• Advanced Studies in…– Tolerance Limits– Average Confidence Limits• Estimation of Confidence Regions

Major Contributions

http://www.clker.com/clipart-blue-book-.html

Main Contributions

• Editorship of the Annals• Improving weapon design and production• Helped found Institute of Mathematical

Statistics and many other institutions• Likelihood Ratio Test Advances

Major Contributions

Main Contributions

• Annals of Mathematical Statistics– Where many of his works were published

• Biometrika• Elementary Statistical Analysis – “Blue Book”• Mathematical Statistics – “Gray Book”

Important Publications

The Inevitable End

• Died in his sleep on March 7, 1964 at his Princeton home

• An award was named after him– The Stanley S. Wilks

Award• Greatly missed by the

Statistic’s community

The Inevitable End

Sources

• http://www.amstat.org/about/statisticiansinhistory/bios/wilkssamuels.pdf

• http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=samuel+stanley+wilks&lk=3

• http://www.stat.wisc.edu/~wahba/talks1/jsm.09/noether/noetheraward.pdf

Sources

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