Donald Mainland
{{Short description|Scottish medical statistician (1902–1985)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Donald Mainland FRSE FRSC (1902-1985) was a Scots-born medical statistician who became a Professor at the New York University.{{cite encyclopedia|doi=10.1002/0470011815.b2a17091 | title=Mainland, Donald | encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Biostatistics | last1 = Altman | first1 = Douglas G.| year=2005 | isbn=9780470849071 }} He is remembered for his series of Mainland's Notes.
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Life
He was born in Edinburgh in 1902, the son of William Mainland, a confectioner running a shop at 140 St Stephen Street in the Stockbridge area.Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1902-3
He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with an MB, ChB. In 1927, he won the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize in Anatomy for his essay, “The pluriovular follicle, with special reference to its occurrence in the ferret”.{{Cite journal |last=Mainland |first=Donald |date=1927 |title=The pluriovular follicle, with special reference to its occurrence in the ferret |url=https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/35120 |language=en}} And in 1931, Edinburgh University awarded him a DSc.{{Cite journal |last=Mainland |first=Donald |date=1931 |title=The application of quantitative methods to the study of early development and ovarian structure in mammals |url=https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/35121 |language=en}} He was a lecturer in anatomy at the University of Edinburgh and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1938. His proposers were Ernest Cruickshank, James Couper Brash, Alfred Joseph Clark and Ivan De Burgh Daly. In 1954, he was named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.{{cite web|url=http://www.amstat.org/awards/fellowslist.cfm|title=View/Search Fellows of the ASA|publisher=American Statistical Association|accessdate=2016-07-22|archive-date=2016-06-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616161612/https://www.amstat.org/awards/fellowslist.cfm|url-status=dead}} He resigned from the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1965.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=2017-08-20|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}
In 1949, he emigrated to Nova Scotia to take on the role of Professor of Anatomy at Dalhousie University. His personality clashed with his junior colleague, Dr Richard Holbourne Saunders (who then replaced him) and one year later he was appointed Professor of Biostatics in the Department of Preventative Medicine at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City, United States. In 1953, he moved to the Department of Medical Statistics as its Chairman.Lives of Dalhousie University 1925-1980. P. Waite
Publications
- Mainland's Notes from a Laboratory of Medical Statistics
- Mainland's Statistical Ward Rounds
- Mainland's Notes on Biometry in Medical Research
- Mainland's Elementary Medical Statistics' (1952)
- Statistical Tables for Use in Binomial Samples
References
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Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
Category:Fellows of the American Statistical Association
Category:British emigrants to the United States
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