Egon Sharpe Pearson (11 August 1895 – 12 June 1980) was one of three children of

Karl Pearson Karl Pearson (; born Carl Pearson; 27 March 1857 – 27 April 1936) was an English mathematician and biostatistician. He has been credited with establishing the discipline of mathematical statistics. He founded the world's first university st ...

and Maria, née Sharpe, and, like his father, a leading British

statistician A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may wor ...

Career

He was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, and succeeded his father as professor of statistics at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

and as editor of the journal ''

Biometrika ''Biometrika'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Oxford University Press for thBiometrika Trust The editor-in-chief is Paul Fearnhead (Lancaster University). The principal focus of this journal is theoretical statistics. It was es ...

''. Pearson is best known for development of the

Neyman–Pearson lemma In statistics, the Neyman–Pearson lemma was introduced by Jerzy Neyman and Egon Pearson in a paper in 1933. The Neyman-Pearson lemma is part of the Neyman-Pearson theory of statistical testing, which introduced concepts like errors of the seco ...

of statistical hypothesis testing. He was elected a

Fellow of the Econometric Society In the scientific discipline of economics, the Econometric Society is a learned society devoted to the advancement of economics by using mathematical and statistical methods. This article is a list of its (current and in memory) fellows. Fellows ...

in 1948. He was President 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. ...

in 1955–56, and was awarded its

Guy Medal The Guy Medals are awarded by the Royal Statistical Society in three categories; Gold, Silver and Bronze. The Silver and Bronze medals are awarded annually. The Gold Medal was awarded every three years between 1987 and 2011, but is awarded biennia ...

in gold in 1955. He was appointed a CBE in 1946. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in March 1966. His candidacy citation read:

Family life

Pearson married Eileen Jolly in 1934 and the couple had two daughters, Judith and Sarah. Eileen died of pneumonia in 1949. Pearson subsequently married Margaret Theodosia Scott in 1967 and the couple lived in Cambridge until Margaret's death in 1975. Pearson moved to West Lavington in Sussex and lived there until his death in 1980.

Works

* ''On the Use and Interpretation of certain Test Criteria for the Purposes of Statistical Inference'' (coauthor

Jerzy Neyman Jerzy Neyman (April 16, 1894 – August 5, 1981; born Jerzy Spława-Neyman; ) was a Polish mathematician and statistician who spent the first part of his professional career at various institutions in Warsaw, Poland and then at University College ...

in ''

'', 1928) * ''The History of statistics in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries'' (1929). Commented version of a series of conference by his father. * ''On the Problem of the Most Efficient Tests of Statistical Hypotheses'' (coauthor

, 1933) * * ''Karl Pearson : an appreciation of some aspects of his life and work'' (1938) * * ''Studies in the history of statistics and probability'' (1969, coauthor

Maurice George Kendall Sir Maurice George Kendall, FBA (6 September 1907 – 29 March 1983) was a prominent British statistician. The Kendall tau rank correlation is named after him. Education and early life Maurice Kendall was born in Kettering, Northampton ...

)

References

External links

Obituary by Herbert A. David
(retrieved 1 August 2017)

(retrieved 1 August 2017) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, Egon Sharpe 1895 births 1980 deaths People from Hampstead Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Academics of University College London Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English mathematicians English statisticians Fellows of the Royal Society People educated at Winchester College Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society 20th-century British mathematicians Fellows of the Econometric Society