M. S. Bartlett

M. S. Bartlett
M. S. Bartlett
Born	18 June 1910; London, England
Died	8 January 2002 (aged 91); Exmouth, Devon, England
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Awards	Guy Medal (Silver, 1952) (Gold, 1969); Weldon Memorial Prize (1971); Fellow of the Royal Society
	Scientific career
Institutions	University College, London; Imperial Chemical Industries; University of Cambridge; University of Manchester; University of Oxford
Doctoral advisor	John Wishart
Doctoral students	David George Kendall ; Maurice Priestley ; Alladi Ramakrishnan; Julian Besag

Maurice Stevenson Bartlett FRS^[1] (18 June 1910 – 8 January 2002) was an English statistician who made particular contributions to the analysis of data with spatial and temporal patterns. He is also known for his work in the theory of statistical inference and in multivariate analysis.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

Biography[edit]

Born in London,^[6] Bartlett was raised in a poor family but won a scholarship to Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, where he was inspired to the study of statistics by a chapter in Hall and Knight's Algebra. In 1929, he won a scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge where he read mathematics, graduating with the rank of wrangler. He attended lectures on statistics by John Wishart, on relativity by Arthur Eddington and on quantum mechanics by Paul Dirac. In one of his lectures Wishart described his geometric derivation of the Wishart distribution. Overnight Bartlett worked out a proof using characteristic functions. Bartlett was Wishart's first post-graduate student and they wrote two papers together. This was the beginning of Bartlett's involvement with multivariate analysis. During his Queens years, he rowed for the college.^[7]

In 1933, Bartlett was recruited by Egon Pearson to the new statistics department at University College, London. Pearson was already working with Jerzy Neyman. Also in the college were Ronald A. Fisher and J. B. S. Haldane. Bartlett was stimulated by all of them, most of all by the work of Fisher, criticising some of it (for example, fiducial inference) while developing other parts (for example conditional inference). Relations between the two men fluctuated; sometimes Bartlett was in Fisher's good books, but often not. In 1934, Bartlett became statistician at the Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) agricultural research station at Jealott's Hill. Not only did he deal with practical problems but he worked on statistical theory, as well as on problems in genetics but he became interested in the characterisation of intelligence. He remembered Jealott's Hill as the best working environment of his career. Bartlett left ICI for the University of Cambridge in 1938 but at the outset of World War II was mobilised into the Ministry of Supply, conducting rocket research alongside Frank Anscombe, David Kendall and Pat Moran.

After the war Bartlett's renewed Cambridge work focused on time-series analysis and stochastic process. With Jo Moyal he planned a large book on probability, but the collaboration did not work out and Bartlett went ahead and published his own book on stochastic processes. He made a number of visits to the United States. In 1947 he became professor of mathematical statistics at the School of Mathematics at the University of Manchester where he not only developed his interests in epidemiology but also served as an able and active administrator. In 1960, he took up the chair of statistics at University College, London before serving the last eight years of his academic life as professor of biomathematics at the University of Oxford. He retired in 1975.

After his retirement Bartlett remained active in statistics, visiting the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University several times. He had married Sheila, daughter of C. E. Chapman, in 1957, the couple parenting a daughter. Bartlett died in Exmouth, Devon.

Bartlett is known for Bartlett's method for estimating power spectra and Bartlett's test for homoscedasticity.

Honours[edit]

Rayleigh Prize, (1933);
Guy Medals in Silver (1952) and Gold (1969) of the Royal Statistical Society;
President of the Manchester Statistical Society, (1959–1960);
Fellow of the Royal Society, (1961);
President of the Royal Statistical Society (1966);
Honorary Member of the International Statistical Institute, (1980);
Foreign Associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, (1993);
D.Sc.s from the University of Chicago (1966) and the University of Hull (1976).

References[edit]

^ ^a ^b Whittle, P. (2004). "Maurice Stevenson Bartlett. 18 June 1910 – 8 January 2002: Elected F.R.S. 1961". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 50: 15. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2004.0002.
^ Gani, J. (2002). "Professor M. S. Bartlett FRS, 1910–2002". Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. 51 (3): 399–402. doi:10.1111/1467-9884.00327.
^ Armitage, P. (2005). "Bartlett, Maurice Stevenson". Encyclopedia of Biostatistics. doi:10.1002/0470011815.b2a17003. ISBN 047084907X.
^ Gani, J. (2002). "Obituary: Maurice Stevenson Bartlett". Journal of Applied Probability. 39 (3): 664–670. doi:10.1239/jap/1034082138.
^ M. S. Bartlett at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
^ Olkin, I. (1989). "A Conversation with Maurice Bartlett". Statistical Science. 4 (2): 151–163. doi:10.1214/ss/1177012600.
^ Wiiliams, Richard H.; Zimmerman, Donald W.; Ross, Donald C.; Zumbo, Bruno D. (2006). "Chapter 11. Maurice Bartlett: Time Series and Multivariate Statistics". Twelve British Statisticians. Bitingduck Press LLC. pp. 72–76. ISBN 978-1-932482-44-7.

Works[edit]

Books[edit]

An Introduction to Stochastic Processes, (1955) ISBN 0-521-04116-3
- Darling, Donald A. (1956). "Review of An introduction to stochastic processes with special reference to methods and applications by M. S. Bartlett". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 62: 73–74. doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1956-09989-6.
Stochastic Population Models in Ecology and Epidemiology, (1960) ISBN 0-416-52330-7
Essays in Probability and Statistics, (1962) ISBN 0-416-64880-0
Probability, Statistics and Time, (1975) ISBN 0-412-14150-7
The Statistical Analysis of Spatial Pattern, (1976) ISBN 0-412-14290-2
Selected Papers of M. S. Bartlett 3 vols. edited by R.G. Stanton, E.D. Johnson, D.S. Meek. Winnipeg : Charles Babbage Research Centre (1989).

Selected papers[edit]

(1933) with John Wishart, The distribution of second order moment statistics in a normal system. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 28, 455–459.
(1933) On the theory of statistical regression. Proc. Royal Soc. Edinburgh, 53, 260–283.
(1933) Probability and chance in the theory of statistics. Proc. Royal Soc. Lond. A 141 518–534.
(1934) The vector representation of a sample. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc., 30, 327–340.
(1936) Statistical information and properties of sufficiency. Proc. Royal Soc. Lond. A 154, 124–137.
(1937) Properties of sufficiency and statistical tests. Proc. Royal Soc. Lond. A, 160, 268–282. (reprinted with an introduction by D. A. S. Fraser S. Kotz & N. L. Johnson (eds) Breakthroughs in Statistics, volume 1. Springer, New York. 1992.)
(1938) Methods of estimating mental factors. Nature, 141, 609–610.
(1939) A note on tests of significance in multivariate analysis, in Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
(1941) The statistical significance of canonical correlation. Biometrika.
(1947) The use of transformations. Biometrics.
(1948) Internal and external factor analysis. British Journal of Psychiatry.
(1949) Fitting a straight line when both variables are subjects to error. Biometrics.
(1949) The statistical significance of "dispersed hits" in card-guessing experiments. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 48, 336–338.
(1950) Tests of significance in multivariate analysis. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology.
(1950) Tests of significance in factor analysis. British Journal of Psychology, 3, 77–85.

Autobiography[edit]

Ingram Olkin (1989) A Conversation with Maurice Bartlett, Statistical Science, 4, 151–163.
"Chance and Change" in J. Gani (ed) (1982) The Making of Statisticians, New York: Springer-Verlag.

Several statisticians, including Bartlett, give their life stories.

External links[edit]

ISI Newsletter Note by D. R. Cox Archived 14 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine
IMS Bulletin Obituary by Besag & Clifford p. 14 at the Wayback Machine (archived 17 May 2005)
Royal Society citation

For Bartlett's correspondence with Fisher see

There are photographs at

Maurice Stevenson Bartlett on the Portraits of Statisticians page.
Royal Society^{[permanent dead link]}

Professional and academic associations
Preceded by E. Devons	President of the Manchester Statistical Society 1959–60	Succeeded by L. H. C. Tippett

[frs-1] Whittle, P. (2004). "Maurice Stevenson Bartlett. 18 June 1910 – 8 January 2002: Elected F.R.S. 1961". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 50: 15. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2004.0002.

[2] Gani, J. (2002). "Professor M. S. Bartlett FRS, 1910–2002". Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. 51 (3): 399–402. doi:10.1111/1467-9884.00327.

[3] Armitage, P. (2005). "Bartlett, Maurice Stevenson". Encyclopedia of Biostatistics. doi:10.1002/0470011815.b2a17003. ISBN 047084907X.

[4] Gani, J. (2002). "Obituary: Maurice Stevenson Bartlett". Journal of Applied Probability. 39 (3): 664–670. doi:10.1239/jap/1034082138.

[mathgene-5] M. S. Bartlett at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

[6] Olkin, I. (1989). "A Conversation with Maurice Bartlett". Statistical Science. 4 (2): 151–163. doi:10.1214/ss/1177012600.

[Williams2006-7] Wiiliams, Richard H.; Zimmerman, Donald W.; Ross, Donald C.; Zumbo, Bruno D. (2006). "Chapter 11. Maurice Bartlett: Time Series and Multivariate Statistics". Twelve British Statisticians. Bitingduck Press LLC. pp. 72–76. ISBN 978-1-932482-44-7.

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[6]

[7]

v t e Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society
19th century	1834–1836 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1836–1838 Sir Charles Lemon, Bt 1838–1840 The Earl FitzWilliam 1840–1842 Viscount Sandon 1842–1843 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1843–1845 Lord Ashley 1845–1847 The Lord Monteagle of Brandon 1847–1849 The Earl FitzWilliam 1849–1851 The Earl of Harrowby 1851–1853 The Lord Overstone 1853–1855 The Earl FitzWilliam 1855–1857 The Earl of Harrowby 1857–1859 Lord Stanley 1859–1861 Lord John Russell 1861–1863 Sir John Pakington, Bt 1863–1865 William Henry Sykes 1865–1867 The Lord Houghton 1867–1869 William Ewart Gladstone 1869–1871 William Newmarch 1871–1873 William Farr 1873–1875 William Guy 1875–1877 James Heywood 1877–1879 George Shaw-Lefevre 1879–1880 Thomas Brassey 1880–1882 James Caird 1882–1884 Robert Giffen 1884–1886 Rawson W. Rawson 1886–1888 George Goschen 1888–1890 Thomas Graham Balfour 1890–1892 Frederic J. Mouat 1892–1894 Charles Booth 1894–1896 The Lord Farrer 1896–1897 John Biddulph Martin 1897 Alfred Edmund Bateman 1897–1899 Leonard Courtney 1899–1900 Henry Fowler 1900–1902 The Lord Avebury
20th century	1902–1904 Patrick George Craigie 1904–1905 Sir Francis Powell, Bt 1905–1906 The Earl of Onslow 1906–1907 Richard Martin 1907–1909 Sir Charles Dilke, Bt 1909–1910 Jervoise Athelstane Baines 1910–1912 Lord George Hamilton 1912–1914 Francis Ysidro Edgeworth 1914–1915 The Lord Welby 1915–1916 Lord George Hamilton 1916–1918 Bernard Mallet, Registrar General 1918–1920 Herbert Samuel 1920–1922 R. Henry Rew 1922–1924 The Lord Emmott 1924–1926 Udny Yule 1926–1928 The Viscount D'Abernon 1928–1930 A. William Flux 1930–1932 Sir Josiah Stamp 1932–1934 The Lord Meston 1934–1936 Major Greenwood 1936–1938 The Lord Kennet 1938–1940 Arthur Lyon Bowley 1940–1941 Henry William Macrosty 1941 Hector Leak 1941–1943 William Beveridge 1943–1945 Ernest Charles Snow 1945–1947 The Lord Woolton 1947–1949 David Heron 1949–1950 Sir Geoffrey Heyworth 1950–1952 Austin Bradford Hill 1952–1954 Ronald Fisher 1954–1955 The Lord Piercy 1955–1957 Egon Pearson 1957–1959 Harry Campion 1959–1960 Hugh Beaver 1960–1962 Maurice Kendall 1962–1964 Joseph Oscar Irwin 1964–1965 Sir Paul Chambers 1965–1966 L. H. C. Tippett 1966–1967 M. S. Bartlett 1967–1968 Frank Yates 1968–1969 Arthur Cockfield 1969–1970 R. G. D. Allen 1970–1971 Bernard Benjamin 1971–1972 George Alfred Barnard 1972–1973 Harold Wilson 1973–1974 D. J. Finney 1974–1975 Henry Daniels 1975–1977 Stella Cunliffe 1977–1978 Henry Wynn 1978–1980 Sir Claus Moser 1980–1982 David Cox 1982–1984 Peter Armitage 1984–1985 Walter Bodmer 1985–1986 John Nelder 1986–1987 James Durbin 1987–1989 John Kingman 1989–1991 Peter G. Moore 1991–1993 T. M. F. Smith 1993–1995 D. J. Bartholomew 1995–1997 Adrian Smith 1997–1999 Robert Nicholas Curnow 1999–2001 Denise Lievesley
21st century	2001–2003 Peter Green 2003–2005 Andy Grieve 2005–2007 Tim Holt 2008–2009 David Hand 2010–2010 Bernard Silverman (resigned Feb 2010; replaced pro tem by David Hand) 2011–2012 Valerie Isham 2013–2014 John Pullinger 2014–2016 Peter Diggle 2017–2018 David Spiegelhalter 2019– Deborah Ashby
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