Francis Anscombe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Francis Anscombe
Born 1918-05-13
Hove, East Sussex
Died 2001-10-17
Residence United Kingdom
United States
Citizenship United Kingdom
Fields Statistician
Institutions University of Cambridge
Rothamsted Experimental Station
Princeton University
Yale University
Alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge
Known for Analysis of residuals
Anscombe's quartet
Anscombe transform

Francis John (Frank) Anscombe (1918-05-13–2001-10-17) was an English statistician. Born in Hove, he was educated at Cambridge University. After wartime service, he joined Rothamsted Experimental Station for two years before returning to Cambridge to lecture. He moved to Princeton University in 1956, and became the founding chairman of the statistics department at Yale University in 1963.[1][2].

According to David Cox, his best-known work is probably his definitive 1961 account of the formal properties of residuals in linear regression.[2][3] His earlier suggestion for a variance-stabilizing transformation for Poisson data is often known as the Anscombe transform.[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.[5]. He later published a textbook on statistical computing in APL.[6]

He was brother-in-law to another well-known statistician, John Tukey (their wives were sisters).[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Francis John Anscombe, 83, Mathematician and Professor", New York Times, 2001-10-25. 
  2. ^ a b c Cox, D.R. (2003). "Frank Anscombe". Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series D 52 (4): 679. doi:10.1046/j.0039-0526.2003.02064.x. 
  3. ^ Anscombe, F.J.; Tukey, J.W. (1963). "The Examination and Analysis of Residuals". Technometrics 5 (2): 141-160. 
  4. ^ Anscombe, F.J. (1948). "The Transformation of Poisson, Binomial and Negative-Binomial Data". Biometrika 35: 246-254. doi:10.1093/biomet/35.3-4.246. 
  5. ^ Anscombe, F.J. (1973). "Graphs in Statistical Analysis". The American Statistician 27 (1): 17-21. 
  6. ^ Anscombe, F.J. (1981). Computing in Statistical Science through APL. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 3540905499. 

[edit] External links