Donald Allan Darling (May 4, 1915 – June 24, 2014) was an American statistician, known for the

Anderson–Darling test The Anderson–Darling test is a statistical test of whether a given sample of data is drawn from a given probability distribution. In its basic form, the test assumes that there are no parameters to be estimated in the distribution being tested, ...

. Darling was born in 1915 in Los Angeles. In 1934 Darling began his undergraduate study at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, where he earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics in 1939. In 1940 he became a meteorologist at

Pan American Airways Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

and from 1942 to 1946, during World War II, he headed the statistics department of the ''Air Force Weather Research Project''. Meanwhile, in 1943 Darling enrolled as a graduate student at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

, where in 1947 he received his PhD under

Morgan Ward Henry Morgan Ward"New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WWG-V9Y : 11 February 2018), Henry Morgan Ward, 20 Aug 1901; citing Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, referen ...

with thesis ''Continuous Stochastic Processes''. Immediately afterwards, in 1947, he became a researcher at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

, and in 1948 an assistant professor at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

. In 1949 he went to 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 ...

, where later became a full professor. In 1952

Anderson Anderson or Andersson may refer to: Companies * Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910 * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson ...

and Darling published what is now known as the

, a statistical test that determines whether a given data sample fits a given probability distribution. In 2002 the University of Michigan created a professorship of statistics named in his honor. His doctoral students include

Frank Spitzer Frank Ludvig Spitzer (July 24, 1926 – February 1, 1992) was an Austrian-born American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to probability theory, including the theory of random walks, fluctuation theory, percolation theory, the W ...

. In 1958–1959 he was a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. From 1958 to 1961 he was associate editor of the ''

Annals of Mathematical Statistics The ''Annals of Mathematical Statistics'' was a peer-reviewed statistics journal published by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics from 1930 to 1972. It was superseded by the ''Annals of Statistics'' and the ''Annals of Probability''. In 1938, ...

''. In 1967 he went to the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

, where he retired in 1982 as professor emeritus. He died on June 24, 2014.http://retirees.uci.edu/newsletter/emeriti/Winter2015UCIEmeritiNewsletter.pdf

Selected works

* with

Theodore Wilbur Anderson Theodore Wilbur Anderson (June 5, 1918 – September 17, 2016) was an American mathematician and statistician who specialized in the analysis of multivariate data. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was on the faculty of Columbia Uni ...

: ''Asymptotic theory of certain "goodness-of-fit" criteria based on stochastic processes''. In: ''Annals of Mathematical Statistics.'' vol. 23, 1952, pp. 193–212. * with Arnold J.F.Siegert: ''The First Passage Problem for a Continuous Markov Process.'' In: ''The Annals of Mathematical Statistics.'' vol. 24, no. 4, 1953 * ''On the Asymptotic Distribution of Watson's Statistic.'' In: ''Annals of Statistics.'' 1983

References

External links

* * * * University of Michigan
PDF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Darling, Donald Allan 1915 births American statisticians University of Michigan faculty University of California, Irvine faculty University of California, Los Angeles alumni California Institute of Technology alumni 2014 deaths Place of birth missing Rutgers University faculty