David Victor Hinkley (10 September 1944 – 11 January 2019) was a
statistician known for his research in
statistical models and
inference and for his graduate-level books.
Early life
David Victor Hinkley was born on 10 September 1944 in
Kent, England
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces the ...
.
He studied mathematics and statistics at the
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...
. He earned a
PhD from the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
(now
Imperial College London
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
) in 1969 under the supervision of
David R. Cox
Sir David Roxbee Cox (15 July 1924 – 18 January 2022) was a British statistician and educator. His wide-ranging contributions to the field of statistics included introducing logistic regression, the proportional hazards model and the Cox pro ...
.
Career
While working on his PhD, Hinkley was appointed to a junior lectureship at the University of London.
He spent the years 1969 to 1971 at
Stanford University.
In 1971, he returned to London, and then, in 1973, he moved to the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
where he was a member of the faculty.
In 1983, Hinkley moved to the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...
and became a faculty member.
In 1989, he moved to lead the new Department of Statistics at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
.
In 1995, he became a professor at the
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...
.
He also served as chair of the Department of Statistics and Applied Probability from 1995 to 2002. He served as the Director of Undergraduate Studies from 2003 to 2007. He retired from UC Santa Barbara in 2014.
In 1974 Hinkley and Cox published ''Theoretical Statistics'', a textbook on statistical inference.
Hinkley also collaborated with
Bradley Efron
Bradley Efron (; born May 24, 1938) is an American statistician. Efron has been president of the American Statistical Association (2004) and of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (1987–1988).Cochran, J. (1 September 2015), "ASA Lead ...
, in particular on writing a paper on
maximizing the
conditional likelihood function and on using the
observed Fisher information
In mathematical statistics, the Fisher information (sometimes simply called information) is a way of measuring the amount of information that an observable random variable ''X'' carries about an unknown parameter ''θ'' of a distribution that model ...
. Hinkley was an expert on
bootstrapping
In general, bootstrapping usually refers to a self-starting process that is supposed to continue or grow without external input.
Etymology
Tall boots may have a tab, loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap, allowing one to use fingers ...
, a method of
computational statistics
Computational statistics, or statistical computing, is the bond between statistics and computer science. It means statistical methods that are enabled by using computational methods. It is the area of computational science (or scientific computin ...
, which is largely due to Efron. With Anthony C. Davison, Hinkley wrote a widely used textbook on the subject.
Personal life and death
Hinkley married Betty Blake in 1970. Together, they had two children, Sara and Steve.
They divorced in 1991.
Hinkley had interests in soccer, nature and classical music.
Hinkley died on January 11, 2019, at his home in
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...
.
Awards
Hinkley was an elected fellow of the
American Statistical Association
The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest continuousl ...
, a fellow of the
Institute of Mathematical Statistics
The Institute of Mathematical Statistics is an international professional and scholarly society devoted to the development, dissemination, and application of statistics and probability. The Institute currently has about 4,000 members in all parts o ...
, fellow of the
Royal Statistical Society
The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good.
...
and fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was also an honorary fellow at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
and a vice president of the Royal Statistical Society.
In 1984 Hinkley received the
COPSS Presidents' Award.''
COPPS Awards – Recipients
.
Selected publications
* Cox, D. R.; Hinkley, D. V. (1974). ''Theoretical Statistics''. New York: John Wiley & Sons/Halsted Press.
* Davison, A. C.; Hinkley, D. V. (2006). ''Bootstrap Methods and their Application'' (8th printing). Cambridge: Cambridge Series in Statistical and Probabilistic Mathematics.
*
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hinkley, David V.
1944 births
2019 deaths
People from Kent
Alumni of the University of Birmingham
Alumni of Imperial College London
Academics of Imperial College London
University of Minnesota faculty
University of Texas at Austin faculty
People associated with the University of Oxford
University of California, Santa Barbara faculty
Fellows of the American Statistical Association
Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics
Fellows of the Royal Statistical Society
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
English statisticians
American statisticians
Annals of Statistics editors