Frank Anscombe
{{short description|English statistician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2012}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Francis Anscombe
| image = Francis Anscombe.jpeg
| image_size = 200px
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1918|05|13|df=y}}
| birth_place = Hove, East Sussex, UK
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2001|10|17|1918|05|13|df=y}}
| death_place = New Haven, Connecticut, USA{{Cite news |last=Saxon |first=Wolfgang |date=2001-10-25 |title=Francis John Anscombe, 83, Mathematician and Professor |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/25/nyregion/francis-john-anscombe-83-mathematician-and-professor.html |access-date=2023-01-30 |issn=0362-4331}}
| citizenship = United Kingdom
| nationality =
| ethnicity =
| field = Statistician
| work_institutions = University of Cambridge
Rothamsted Experimental Station
Princeton University
Yale University
| alma_mater = Trinity College, Cambridge
| doctoral_advisor =
| doctoral_students =
| known_for = Analysis of residuals
Anscombe's quartet
Anscombe transform
| influences =
| influenced =
| prizes =
| footnotes =
| signature =
}}
Francis John Anscombe (13 May 1918 – 17 October 2001) was an English statistician.
Education and career
Born in Hove in England, Anscombe was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. After serving in the Second World War, he joined Rothamsted Experimental Station for two years before returning to Cambridge as a lecturer.
In experiments, Anscombe emphasized randomization in both the design and analysis phases. In the design phase, Anscombe argued that the experimenters should randomize the labels of blocks.
{{cite journal|doi=10.2307/2984159|title=The Validity of Comparative Experiments|authorlink=Francis J. Anscombe|first=F. J.|last=Anscombe|journal=Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General)|volume=111|issue=3|year=1948|pages=181–211|jstor=2984159 |mr=30181}}{{cite book|author1=Caliński, Tadeusz|author2=Kageyama, Sanpei|title=Block designs: A Randomization approach, Volume I: Analysis|series=Lecture Notes in Statistics|volume=150|publisher=Springer-Verlag|location=New York|year=2000|isbn=0-387-98578-6|mr=1781064|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/blockdesignsrand0002cali}} In the analysis phase, Anscombe argued that the randomization plan should guide the analysis of data; Anscombe's approach has influenced John Nelder and R. A. Bailey in particular.
Anscombe moved to Princeton University in 1956, and in the same year he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.[http://www.amstat.org/awards/fellowslist.cfm View/Search Fellows of the ASA] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616161612/https://www.amstat.org/awards/fellowslist.cfm |date=16 June 2016 }}, accessed 2016-07-23. He became the founding chairman of the statistics department at Yale University in 1963.{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01E6DD1231F936A15753C1A9679C8B63| work=The New York Times| date=25 October 2001| title=Francis John Anscombe, 83, Mathematician and Professor | first=Wolfgang | last=Saxon | accessdate=2010-05-02}}
Research
According to David Cox, his best-known work may be his 1961 account of formal properties of residuals in linear regression.{{cite journal
| author = Cox, D. R.
| year = 2003
| title = Frank Anscombe
| journal = Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series D
| volume = 52
| issue = 4
| pages = 679
| doi = 10.1046/j.0039-0526.2003.02064.x
| author = Anscombe, F. J.
|author2=Tukey, J. W.
| year = 1963
| title = The Examination and Analysis of Residuals
| journal = Technometrics
| volume = 5
| issue = 2
| pages = 141–160
| doi = 10.2307/1266059
| publisher = Technometrics, Vol. 5, No. 2
| jstor=1266059
}}
His earlier suggestion for a variance-stabilizing transformation for Poisson data is often known as the Anscombe transform.
{{cite journal
| author = Anscombe, F. J.
| year = 1948
| title = The Transformation of Poisson, Binomial and Negative-Binomial Data
| journal = Biometrika
| volume = 35
| pages = 246–254
| doi=10.1093/biomet/35.3-4.246
| issue = 3–4
}}
He later became interested in statistical computing, and stressed that "a computer should make both calculations and graphs", and illustrated the importance of graphing data with four data sets now known as Anscombe's quartet.{{cite journal
| author = Anscombe, F. J.
| year = 1973
| title = Graphs in Statistical Analysis
| journal = The American Statistician
| volume = 27
| issue = 1
| pages = 17–21
| doi = 10.2307/2682899
| jstor=2682899
}} He later published a textbook on statistical computing in APL.{{cite book
| author = Anscombe, F. J.
| year = 1981
| title = Computing in Statistical Science through APL
| url = https://archive.org/details/computinginstati0000ansc
| url-access = registration
| publisher = Springer-Verlag |location = New York
| isbn=3-540-90549-9
}}
In economics and decision theory, Anscombe is best known for a 1963 paper with Robert Aumann which provides the standard basis for the theory of subjective probability.{{cite web |url=https://projecteuclid.org/journals/annals-of-mathematical-statistics/volume-34/issue-1/A-Definition-of-Subjective-Probability/10.1214/aoms/1177704255.full |title=Anscombe, Aumann: A Definition of Subjective Probability |doi=10.1214/aoms/1177704255 }}
Personal life
Anscombe was brother-in-law to another well-known statistician, John Tukey of Princeton University; their wives were sisters.
References
{{reflist}}
{{refbegin}}
- {{cite news|url=http://www.yale.edu/opa/arc-ybc/v30.n9/story11.html|title=Noted statistician Francis J. Anscombe dies|work=Yale Bulletin & Calendar|date=2001-11-02|volume=30|number=9|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150911055933/http://www.yale.edu/opa/arc-ybc/v30.n9/story11.html|archivedate=11 September 2015}}
{{refend}}
External links
- {{MathGenealogy|id=62936}}
- [http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.1609 Francis John Anscombe Papers.] Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anscombe, Francis J}}
Category:Rothamsted statisticians
Category:English statisticians
Category:American statisticians
Category:Yale University faculty
Category:Cambridge mathematicians
Category:Academics of the University of Cambridge
Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Category:Fellows of the American Statistical Association
Category:Burials at Princeton Cemetery