Ronald A Fisher
(1890 - 1962).
Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (1890–1962) was a British
statistician, geneticist, and evolutionary biologist. Born in
London, he studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge,
where he became particularly interested in the application of
mathematical methods to genetics and evolution.
Fisher made many important innovations to the
statistical treatment of data, including the concepts of statistical
significance, analysis of variance (ANOVA), F-statistics,
and maximum likelihood estimation. Noting that an interval of close
to two standard deviations (exactly 1.959964) on either side of the mean
encompassed about 95% of the normal distribution, he proposed
the 100% - 95% = '5%'criterion for evaluating an
experimental outcome as 'statistically significant.'
His "Statistical Methods for Research Workers"
(1925) many editions later remains in use, and provided tables
of values useful in calculation of statistical probabilities:
these he calculated essentially by hand in the days before
digital computers. His "The Genetical Theory of
Natural Selection" (1930) reconciled particulate
Mendelian genetics and continuous Darwinian natural selection, by
showing that particulate substitution of one allele at a locus for
another would proceed by a slow and gradual process. Along with JBS
Haldane and Sewall Wright, he is regarded as a
founder of Population Genetics.
Like other geneticists in the first half of the
20th century, he advocated eugenic ideas and was Editor of the Eugenics
Review. His writings are now seen as support for
eugenics and racial genetic differences, f which has led to a
re-evaluation of his place in history. Several memorials to him at
Cambridge and elsewhere have been removed.