Besse Beulah Day (later known as Besse Day Mauss, 1889–1986) was an American statistician known for her contributions to the statistics of

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...

and

naval engineering Naval architecture, or naval engineering, is an engineering discipline incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety engineering as applied to the engineering design process, shipbuilding, maintenance, and o ...

, and in particular for pioneering the use of

design of experiments The design of experiments (DOE, DOX, or experimental design) is the design of any task that aims to describe and explain the variation of information under conditions that are hypothesized to reflect the variation. The term is generally associ ...

in engineering.

Education and career

Day was born in 1889 in Chapel Hill, Missouri. She earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics at Central Missouri State Teachers College, and a master's degree in mathematics and statistics in 1927 from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

School of Forestry and Conservation. She worked for the

Victor Talking Machine Company The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidia ...

from 1927 to 1929 before joining the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

in 1930. In 1943 she moved to

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

to assist the war effort by helping develop a radio-based

proximity fuze A proximity fuze (or fuse) is a Fuze (munitions), fuze that detonates an Explosive material, explosive device automatically when the distance to the target becomes smaller than a predetermined value. Proximity fuzes are designed for targets such ...

. After the war she became head of statistics at the United States Naval Engineering Experiment Station in

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

, and later a consulting statistician for the

Bureau of Ships The United States Navy's Bureau of Ships (BuShips) was established by Congress on 20 June 1940, by a law which consolidated the functions of the Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) and the Bureau of Engineering (BuEng). The new bureau was to ...

. As part of her work for the Navy, she transferred her knowledge of the

from forestry to naval engineering, for example using this method to determine which types of steel were susceptible to cracks in

welding Welding is a fabrication (metal), fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing Fusion welding, fusion. Welding is distinct from lower ...

. In 1960 she and her husband, contractor Charles E. Mauss, bought a house on South Carolina Avenue in Washington, DC, where they lived until retiring in 1969 to

New Oxford, Pennsylvania New Oxford is a borough in Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,868 at the 2020 census. Geography New Oxford is located at (39.863208, -77.056475). According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a t ...

. She died on September 14, 1986, in New Oxford.

Recognition

Day became a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

in 1951 for being "diligent in the applications of statistical theory to the two widely separated fields of forestry and engineering". She also became a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

in 1951. In 1958, she was elected to the Washington Academy of Sciences "in recognition of her pioneer work in the statistical design of experiments in many fields particularly those of forestry and engineering and for her unique achievements in the exposition of statistical methods". She was also a fellow of the

American Society for Quality Control The American Society for Quality (ASQ), formerly the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC), is a society of quality professionals, with nearly 80,000 members. History ASQC was established on 16 February 1946 by 253 members in Milwaukee, ...

. Her 1955 paper "The technique of regression analysis" was the 1956 winner of the Brumbaugh Award of the American Society for Quality, as the year's best contribution to the industrial application of quality control.

Selected publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Day, Besse 1889 births 1996 deaths American statisticians Women statisticians University of Central Missouri alumni University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment alumni Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science