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George E. P. Box

 
Wikipedia: George E. P. Box
George E. P. Box

Born 18 October 1919
Gravesend, Kent, England
Residence United Kingdom, United States
Fields Statistics:
Design of experiments
Bayesian statistics
Time series
Institutions ICI
Princeton University
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Alma mater University College London
Doctoral advisor Egon Pearson, H. O. Hartley
Known for Response surface methodology
Box-Jenkins method
Box-Cox transformation
Influences Ronald Fisher
Influenced Norman Draper
George C. Tiao
Notable awards Shewhart Medal (1968),
Wilks Memorial Award (1972),
R. A. Fisher Lectureship (1974),
Guy Medal in Gold (1993)

George Edward Pelham Box (18 October, 1919 – ) a statistician, a pioneer in the areas of quality control, time series analysis, design of experiments and Bayesian inference.

Box has written research papers and published books These include Statistics for Experimenters (1978), Time Series Analysis: Forecasting and Control (1979, with Gwilym Jenkins) and Bayesian Inference in Statistical Analysis. (1973, with George C. Tiao). Today, his name is associated with important results in statistics such as Box-Jenkins models, Box-Cox transformations, Box-Behnken designs and numerous others.

The often quoted phrase, "Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful", is attributed to Box.[1]

Contents

Biographical history

He was born in Gravesend, Kent, England and trained as a chemist. During World War II, he worked on biochemical experiments on the effect of poison gases on small animals for the British Army. He needed statistical advice to analyze the results of his experiments but could not find a statistician who could give him guidance, so he taught himself statistics from available texts. After the war, he enrolled at University College London and obtained a bachelor's degree in mathematics and statistics. He received a Ph.D. from the University of London in 1953.

From 1948 to 1956, Box worked as a statistician for Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). While at ICI, he took a leave of absence for a year and served as a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He later went to Princeton University where he served as Director of the Statistical Research Group.

In 1960, Box moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison to create the Department of Statistics. He was appointed Vilas Research Professor of Statistics (the highest honor accorded to any faculty member at the University of Wisconsin–Madison) in 1980. Box and Bill Hunter co-founded the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1984. Box officially retired in 1992, becoming an Emeritus Professor.

Box married Joan Fisher, the second of Ronald Fisher's five daughters. In 1978, Joan Fisher Box published a biography of Ronald Fisher, with substantial collaboration of George Box.[2]

Professional recognition: offices and awards

George Box served as President of the American Statistical Association in 1978 and of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 1979. He received the Shewhart Medal from the American Society for Quality Control in 1968, the Wilks Memorial Award from the American Statistical Association in 1972, the R. A. Fisher Lectureship in 1974, and the Guy Medal in Gold from the Royal Statistical Society in 1993. George Box was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1974 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1979.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Box, George E. P.; Norman R. Draper (1987). Empirical Model-Building and Response Surfaces, p. 424, Wiley. ISBN 0471810339. (more details at wikiquote)
  2. ^ Joan Fisher Box (1978) R. A. Fisher: The Life of a Scientist Preface

References

External links

For Box's PhD students see


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