Samuel S.
Wilks: The
Statistician
By Kristian Wilks
– Lake Shore
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=samuel+stanley+wilks&lk=3
The Early Years
• Born on June 17th, 1906 in Little Elm, Texas
– Parents: Chance C. and Bertha May Gammon Wilks
– Siblings: Syrrel and William Wilks
• Lived on a 250-acre farm
– Loved hunting and fishing as a child
• Built a radio at the age of 12
http://www.capeoldradio.com/cor_radi
o.php?radio_box=25348
College Life
College
Life
• Studied industrial arts at North Texas State
Teachers College as an undergraduate
• Began teaching mathematics and manual arts
at a high school
http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/education2.shtml
College Life
College
Life
• Began studying mathematics at the University
of Texas
– Received his master’s degree in 1928
• Left Texas to study probability and statistics
at the University of Iowa
– Received his doctorate in 1931
http://06880danwoog.com/tag/harry-moritz/
After Graduation
Graduation
Life Life
After
• Awarded A National Research Council
Fellowship by Columbia University for
mathematics
• Served on the National Defense Research
Committee
– Award President’s Certificate of Merit
After Graduation
Graduation
Life Life
After
• Went on to marry Gena Orr in 1931
– Had a son named Stanley Neal Wilks
• Became an NRC Research Fellow working at…
– University of London
– University of Cambridge
• Went to teach Mathematics at Princeton
Main
Contributions
Major
Contributions
• “Blue-book”
• “Gray-book”
• Advanced Studies in…
– Tolerance Limits
– Average Confidence Limits
http://www.clker.com/clipart-blue-book-.html
• Estimation of Confidence Regions
Main
Contributions
Major
Contributions
• Editorship of the Annals
• Improving weapon design and production
• Helped found Institute of Mathematical
Statistics and many other institutions
• Likelihood Ratio Test Advances
Main Contributions
Important
Publications
• Annals of Mathematical Statistics
– Where many of his works were published
• Biometrika
• Elementary Statistical Analysis – “Blue Book”
• Mathematical Statistics – “Gray Book”
Inevitable EndEnd
TheThe
Inevitable
• Died in his sleep on
March 7, 1964 at his
Princeton home
• An award was named
after him
– The Stanley S. Wilks
Award
• Greatly missed by the
Statistic’s community
Sources
Sources
• http://www.amstat.org/about/statisticiansinhi
story/bios/wilkssamuels.pdf
• http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sam
uel+stanley+wilks&lk=3
• http://www.stat.wisc.edu/~wahba/talks1/jsm.
09/noether/noetheraward.pdf
THE
END
:D