Charles Paine Winsor (June 19, 1895 – April 4, 1951) was an American

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical a ...

and

biostatistician 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 experimen ...

. Winsor was born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

to Frederick Winsor and Mary Anna Lee Winsor in 1895. He studied at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

where he obtained 2 degrees (AB and SB) in

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

. From 1921 to 1927 he worked as an engineer at the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company. His interest in biology made him switch career and he moved to Baltimore to work for

Raymond Pearl Raymond Pearl (June 3, 1879 – November 17, 1940) was an American biologist, regarded as one of the founders of biogerontology. He spent most of his career at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Pearl was a prolific writer of academic books, ...

, and he returned to Harvard to finish his PhD in 1935 in general physiology under W. J. Crozier. Following this, from 1938 to 1941 he worked at the Statistical Laboratory at Iowa State College as Assistant Professor of

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. During the war he worked at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

under a contract from the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Following the war, in 1946 he went back to Baltimore and become Assistant Professor of Biostatistics in the

School of Hygiene and Public Health A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compulsor ...

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 ...

. It was during this time that he became the editor of the scientific journal '' Human Biology''. He died suddenly (cause not stated) April 4, 1951 at the age of 55. He was survived by his wife Agnes Winsor. He is most known for inventing the method of winsorization in statistics, which is now named after him. He was named 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 1949.

Selected works

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References

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health faculty 1895 births 1951 deaths American statisticians Biostatisticians Fellows of the American Statistical Association {{US-statistician-stub

Selected works

See also

References