Churchill Eisenhart (1913–1994) was a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. He was Chief of the Statistical Engineering Laboratory (SEL), Applied Mathematics Division of the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

(NBS).

Biography

Eisenhart was the son of Luther Eisenhart, a prominent mathematician in his own right. Churchill Eisenhart was brought to the NBS from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

in 1946 by

Edward Condon Edward Uhler Condon (March 2, 1902 – March 26, 1974) was an American nuclear physicist, a pioneer in quantum mechanics, and a participant during World War II in the development of radar and, very briefly, of nuclear weapons as part of the ...

, Director of the NBS, to establish a statistical consulting group to "substitute sound mathematical analysis for costly experimentation." He was allowed to recruit his own staff and, over the years, he brought many notable and accomplished statisticians to SEL. He served as its Chief from 1947 until his appointment as Senior Research Fellow in 1963. He retired in 1983 after which he formed the Standards Alumni Association, which he headed until his death in 1994. Over his career, Eisenhart was awarded the

U.S. Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth ...

Exceptional Service Award in 1957; the Rockefeller Public Service Award in 1958; and the Wildhack Award of the National Conference of Standards Laboratories in 1982. He was elected

President of the American Statistical Association The president of the American Statistical Association is the head of the American Statistical Association (ASA). According to the association's bylaws, the president is an officer, and a member of the board of directors and of the executive commit ...

(ASA) in 1971 and received the Association's Wilks Memorial Medal in 1977. Eisenhart was honored with an Outstanding Achievements Award of the

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 ...

Class of 1934 and with Fellowships in the ASA, 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 ...

, and the Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He was a long-time member of the

Cosmos Club The Cosmos Club is a 501(c)(7) private social club in Washington, D.C. that was founded by John Wesley Powell in 1878 as a gentlemen's club for those interested in science. Among its stated goals is, "The advancement of its members in science, ...

References

* *

Ingram Olkin Ingram Olkin (July 23, 1924 – April 28, 2016) was a professor emeritus and chair of statistics and education at Stanford University and the Stanford Graduate School of Education. He is known for developing statistical analysis for evaluatin ...

(1992) A Conversation with Churchill Eisenhart. Statistical Science, 7, 512–530. * Joseph M. Cameron; Joan R. Rosenblatt (1995) Churchill Eisenhart, 1913–1994, The American Statistician, 49, 243–244.
Samuel S. Wilks Award Citation for 1977

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20150310072117/http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/finding_aids/mathoral/pmc09.htm An interview with Churchill Eisenhart about his experience at Princeton 10 July 1984

External sources

Obituary in the ''Washington Post''

Churchill Eisenhart
on the pag

1913 births 1994 deaths American statisticians 20th-century American mathematicians Princeton University alumni Presidents of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the American Statistical Association University of Wisconsin people {{US-statistician-stub