Columbus Clark Cockerham (December 21, 1921 – November 4, 1996) was an American statistical geneticist known for his work in quantitative genetics.

Early life and education

Cockerham was born on December 21, 1921 in Mountain Park,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. He grew up nearby on his family's farm. He received his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

from the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering in 1943. After serving in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he returned to North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering, where he received his

M.S. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

in animal industry in 1949. In 1952, he received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

from Iowa State College, where he studied with Jay Lush.

Career

In 1952, Cockerham became an assistant professor of

biostatistics Biostatistics (also known as biometry) are the development and application of statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experime ...

at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. The following year, he joined

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...

(NCSU) as an associate professor of

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...

. At NCSU, he later became the William Neal Reynolds Professor of Statistics and Genetics and the director of the NIH Project Program in Statistics. In 1963, he successfully persuaded the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to award him a

research grant A grant is a fund given by an end entity grant – often a public body, charitable foundation, or a specialised grant-making institution – to an individual or another entity (usually, a non-profit organisation, sometimes a business or a local ...

for a program in quantitative genetics, which he directed until his retirement in 1990. During this time, NCSU's quantitative genetics program was the largest project at NCSU that was funded by a federal grant.

Honors and awards

Cockerham was elected a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 1974. He received the North Carolina Award in

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

in 1976, the O. Max Gardner Award in 1980, and NCSU's Holladay Medal in 1994. He was also a recipient of the

Gamma Sigma Delta Gamma Sigma Delta (), or more fully, the Honor Society of Agriculture, Gamma Sigma Delta, is an honor society for Agriculture students and those in related fields. Founded in 1913, it is the oldest and largest such society for its academic discipl ...

Award of Merit and a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy.

Personal life and death

Cockerham was married to Joyce Evelyn Allen, with whom he had three children: C. Clark Cockerham Jr., Jean Davis, and Bruce A. Cockerham. C. Clark Cockerham died on November 4, 1996.

References

External links

Profile
at

SNAC Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC) is an online project for discovering, locating, and using distributed historical records in regard to individual people, families, and organizations. The project SNAC is a digital research project t ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cockerham, Columbus Clark 1921 births 1996 deaths Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences North Carolina State University faculty North Carolina State University alumni Iowa State University alumni American geneticists Statistical geneticists University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty People from Surry County, North Carolina American statisticians United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II