| Leonard Henry Caleb Tippett | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 8, 1902 London, England |
| Died | November 9, 1985 (aged 83) Cornwall, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | statistician |
| Known for | inventing the random number table, extreme value theorem |
Leonard Henry Caleb Tippett (8 May 1902 - 9 November 1985) was an English physicist and statistician.
Born in London, Tippett graduated in physics in the early 1920s at Imperial College. He studied for his Master of Science in statistics under Professor Karl Pearson at the Galton Laboratory, University College London and R. A. Fisher at Rothamsted. He spent his entire career, 1925 to 1965, on the staff of the Shirley Institute, Manchester becoming in 1952 one of the first Assistant Directors. Along with R.A. Fisher and Emil Gumbel, he pioneered extreme value theory. The Fisher-Tippett distribution is named after him.
At the Shirley Institute he applied statistics to the problem of yarn breakage rates in weaving. In the late 1920s and 1930s he became known for his 'snap-reading' method of observation which lead to improved production efficiency and operative utilization. As a result of his work in the textile industry he was awarded the Shewart Medal of the American Society for Quality Control.
Tippett published "Random Sampling Numbers" in 1927 and thus invented the random number table.
In 1965 he retired to St Austell, Cornwall and in this period became an UNIDO consultant, being active in India. He died in 1985 after being hit by a van whilst walking from his home to the St. Austell Choral Society to sing in the St. Matthew Passion.
| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by Sir Paul Chambers |
President of the Royal Statistical Society 1965–1966 |
Succeeded by M.S. Bartlett |
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