Joseph Michael Hilbe (December 30, 1944 – March 12, 2017) was an American

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 ...

and

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, founding President of the International Astrostatistics Association (IAA) and one of the most prolific authors of books on statistical modeling in the early twenty-first century. Hilbe was an elected

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

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 ...

as well as an elected member of the

International Statistical Institute The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a professional association of statisticians. It was founded in 1885, although there had been international statistical congresses since 1853. The institute has about 4,000 elected members from gov ...

(ISI), for which he founded the ISI astrostatistics committee in 2009. Hilbe was also a 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 ''Full Member'' of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

. Hilbe made a number of contributions to the fields of count response models and logistic regression. Among his most influential books are two editions of ''Negative Binomial Regression'' (

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, 2007, 2011), ''Modeling Count Data'' (

, 2014), and ''Logistic Regression Models'' (

Chapman & Hall Chapman & Hall is an imprint owned by CRC Press, originally founded as a British publishing house in London in the first half of the 19th century by Edward Chapman and William Hall. Chapman & Hall were publishers for Charles Dickens (from 1840 ...

/CRC, 2009). ''Modeling Count Data'' won the 2015 PROSE honorable mention award for books in mathematics as the second best mathematics book published in 2014. Hilbe was also editor-in-chief of the ''Springer Series in Astrostatistics'', which began in 2011, was one of two co-editors for the ''Astrostatistics and AstroInformatics Portal'', a co-ordinated website for the major astrostatistical organizations worldwide, hosted by the

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and was coordinating editor of the ''Cambridge University Press Series on Predictive Analytics in Action'', which commenced in 2012. A listing of his books, book chapters and encyclopedia articles are listed below (Publications). Hilbe was also a two-time national champion

track & field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

, a US team and NCAA Division 1 head coach, and Olympic Games official. He was also chair of the ISI sports statistics committee from 2007 to 2011 and chair of the 2014 Section on Statistics and Sports of the American Statistical Association.

Life and works

Born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California, son of Rader John Hilbe (1910–1980) and Nadyne Anderson Hilbe (1910–1988), Hilbe was raised in

Arcadia, California Arcadia is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located about northeast of downtown Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley and at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. It contains a series of adjacent parks consisting of th ...

, attended three years of high school at

Woodside Priory School Woodside Priory School (commonly known as The Priory) is an independent, co-educational, Benedictine Catholic, college-preparatory, day and boarding school in Portola Valley, California, United States. It is located within the Roman Catholic Ar ...

Portola Valley, California Portola Valley is a town in San Mateo County, California. Located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the Bay Area, Portola Valley is a small, wealthy community nestled on the eastern slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains. History Portola Val ...

, before graduating from

Paradise, California Paradise is a town in Butte County, California, United States in the Sierra Nevada foothills above the northeastern Sacramento Valley. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 4,764. On November 8, 2018, a major wildfire, the Camp Fire ...

high school in 1962. Hilbe attended

California State University, Chico California State University, Chico, or commonly, Chico State, is a public university in Chico, California. Founded in 1887, it is the second oldest campus in the California State University system. As of the fall 2020 semester, the university had ...

, from which he graduated in 1968 with a degree in philosophy. Hilbe studied for his doctorate in philosophy 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 ...

(UCLA) where he was a graduate reader for visiting professor and

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...

and personal assistant to

Rudolf Carnap Rudolf Carnap (; ; 18 May 1891 – 14 September 1970) was a German-language philosopher who was active in Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a major member of the Vienna Circle and an advocate of logical positivism. He ...

, one of the founders of the

Vienna Circle The Vienna Circle (german: Wiener Kreis) of Logical Empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, cha ...

Logical Positivism Logical positivism, later called logical empiricism, and both of which together are also known as neopositivism, is a movement in Western philosophy whose central thesis was the verification principle (also known as the verifiability criterion o ...

. Hilbe secured a position at the

University of Hawaiʻi The University of Hawaiʻi System, formally the University of Hawaiʻi and popularly known as UH, is a public college and university system that confers associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees through three universities, seven com ...

, where he retired as an emeritus professor of philosophy in 1990. During this time he authored several texts in philosophy and logic. In 1988 he earned a doctorate in

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...

(

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathematical s ...

, UCLA) and in 1990 was hired by the

Health Care Financing Administration The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer M ...

to develop statistical and data management tools for the study of Medicare data. Hilbe served as the founding editor of the ''Stata Technical Bulletin'' (predecessor to the '' Stata Journal'') from 1991 to 1993, for which he developed a variety of statistical software commands, including the first

generalized linear model In statistics, a generalized linear model (GLM) is a flexible generalization of ordinary linear regression. The GLM generalizes linear regression by allowing the linear model to be related to the response variable via a ''link function'' and b ...

(GLM) program having a

negative binomial regression In statistics, Poisson regression is a generalized linear model form of regression analysis used to model count data and contingency tables. Poisson regression assumes the response variable ''Y'' has a Poisson distribution, and assumes the logarit ...

family (1993). The negative binomial family is now incorporated into the GLM routines of all major commercial statistical software. Hilbe is regarded as having popularized negative binomial regression, particularly in the disciplines of biostatistics and health outcomes analysis. It is now a standard method used for modeling overdispersed count data. Hilbe's 2007 text, ''Negative Binomial Regression'', was the first text specifically devoted to the model and its many variations. His 2014 ''Modeling Count Data'' is regarded as the first text on applied count models. In 1992 Hilbe was appointed as an adjunct professor of

Statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...

in the Department of

Sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

Tempe, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Vale of Tempe , image_skyline = Tempeskyline3.jpg , imagesize = 260px , image_caption = Tempe skyline as se ...

. In 2007 the Sociology department merged with several other departments to become the School of Social and Family Dynamics. Hilbe served in several corporate positions during the 1990s, including the positions of lead statistician for

Genentech Genentech, Inc., is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It became an independent subsidiary of Roche in 2009. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent center within R ...

's National Registry for Myocardial Infarctions (NRMI-2;1996–97) and lead statistician for

Hoffman-La Roche F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche, is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX S ...

's Canadian National Registry for Cardiovascular Disease (FASTRAK;1997–99). During this period Hilbe played an important role in the formation of the Health Policy Statistics Section of the

, serving as a member of its initial executive committee and as a member of the founding scientific organizing committee (1995) for the International Conferences on Health Policy Statistics (ICHPS). Hilbe was also one of the longest-serving editors for a publication of the

, holding the position of Software Reviews Editor for

The American Statistician ''The American Statistician'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering statistics published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the American Statistical Association. It was established in 1947. The editor-in-chief is Daniel R. Jeske, ...

for twelve years from 1997 to 2009. Hilbe's long-term interest in astronomy and meteorites led to his selection in 2006 as a Solar System Ambassador with

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

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 ...

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

commencing January 2007. In 2008 Hilbe initiated the International Statistical Institute's (ISI) Astrostatistics Interest Group. In December 2009, the ISI Council approved the creation of an astrostatistics committee and network with Hilbe as inaugural chair. It was the first such interest-working group or committee authorized under the auspices of an astronomical or statistical organization. In August 2012 the

International Astrostatistics Association The International Astrostatistics Association (IAA) is a non-profit professional organization for astrostatisticians. Astrostatistics as a discipline is composed of astrophysicists, statisticians, and those in computer information sciences who ha ...

(IAA) was formed, with Hilbe elected as its founding President. The IAA is the first worldwide professional association for astrostatisticians. Its goal is to enhance collaboration between astrophysists, statisticians, and computer-information scientists, with an aim of enabling researchers to better understand and interpret astronomical data. In 2012, the Network and IAA stimulated the creation of the first working groups in astrostatistics and astroinformations within both the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and International Astronomical Union (IAU), with Hilbe as an initial member in both. Hilbe was also on the scientific organizing committee of the first IAU symposium on astrostatistics, Statistical Challenges in 21st Century Cosmology, held in May 2013 in Lisbon. In 2009 Hilbe received the Distinguished Alumnus award from

. Two years prior, he had been inducted into the Chico State Athletic Hall of Fame. He is the only graduate of the university to receive both awards. In 2010, Hilbe was inducted into the Paradise High School Athletic Hall of Fame, and in 2011 was inducted into the Woodside Priory High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Hilbe was married to Cheryl Swisher (1984) in Honolulu, Hawaii, and has four children.

Athletics

Known as ''Joe Hilbe'' when involved with athletics, Hilbe won the National

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...

(AAU)

pentathlon A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek: combining the words ''pente'' (five) and -''athlon'' (competition) ( gr, πένταθλον). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of t ...

championships in 1968 and 1978. He was also listed in the

Track & Field News ''Track & Field News'' is an American monthly sports magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson and Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, ...

World List rankings in the 100 yards (9.4, 1967) and 400 meters (45.9, 1965). Hilbe set Hawaii state records for javelin (78.51/257'7", 1976), which is still the recognized state mark. Hilbe served as national chair for AAU girl's Junior Olympic track & field from 1979 to 1982, and was head women's track & field coach at the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

from 1979 to 1985. His foremost athletes were Gwen Loud, 1984

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division 1 long jump champion (6.72/22'5¾") and a member of the U.S. team to the first

International Association of Athletics Federations World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

(IAAF) world championships in Helsinki, 1983, and Gwen Gardner, second at the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials 400 meters, earning a berth on the Olympic team that boycotted the

Moscow Olympic Games The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

. As a men's assistant coach at the

(1973–1977), Hilbe coached

Terry Albritton Terence Hillary Albritton (January 14, 1955 – September 1, 2005) was an American track and field athlete, former shot put world record holder, and coach. Career Albritton was born in Newport Beach, California and attended Newport Harbor High S ...

, who broke the shot put world record (21.85/71'8½") in 1976, and won numerous AAU and NCAA titles. Hilbe was elected to serve as a U.S. team coach and manager during the 1980s for several major competitions in the U.S., Australia/New Zealand, the Caribbean, and in Europe. Hilbe was a member of the founding committee that formed the National Track & Field Officials Association in 1977. He was a lead competition official and IAAF technical official at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and was hired by

Turner Broadcasting System Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (alternatively known as Turner Entertainment Networks from 2019 until 2022) was an American television and media conglomerate. Founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (lat ...

to serve as athletics broadcast coordinator for the 1990

Goodwill Games The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...

held in Seattle, Washington.

Publications: Books

*Hilbe, Joseph M., de Souza, Rafael S., Ishida, Emille E. O. ''Bayesian Models for Astrophysical Data: Using R, JAGS, Python, and Stan, Cambridge University Press (2017) *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''Practical Guide to Logistic Regression'', Chapman & Hall/CRC (2015) *Miner, L.A., P.S. Bolding, J.M. Hilbe, et al., ''Practical Predictive Analytics and Decisioning Systems in Medicine'', Elsevier (2014), *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''Modeling Count Data'', Cambridge University Press (2014) *Shults, J. and J.M. Hilbe,''Quasi-Least Squares Regression'', Chapman & Hall/CRC (2014) *Zuur, A.F, J.M. Hilbe, E.N Ieno, ''A Beginners Guide to GLM and GLMM with R'', Highlands (2013) *Hilbe, J.M. and A.P. Robinson, ''Methods of Statistical Model Estimation'', Chapman & Hall/CRC (2013) *Hardin, J.W. and J.M. Hilbe, ''Generalized Estimating Equations'', Second Edition, Chapman & Hall/CRC Press (2012) *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''Astrostatistical Challenges for the New Astronomy'', Springer (2012) *Hardin, J.W. and J.M. Hilbe, ''Generalized Linear Models and Extensions'', Third Edition, Stata Press (2012) *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''Negative Binomial Regression'', Second Edition, Cambridge University Press (2011) *Muenchen, R.A. and J.M. Hilbe, ''R for Stata Users'', Springer (2010) *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''Logistic Regression Models'', Chapman & Hall/CRC Press (2009) *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''Solutions Manual for Logistic Regression Models'', Chapman & Hall/CRC (2009) *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''Negative Binomial Regression'', Cambridge University Press (2007) *Hardin, J.W. and J.M. Hilbe, ''Generalized Linear Models and Extensions'', Second Edition, Stata Press (2007) *Hardin, J.W. and J.M. Hilbe, ''Generalized Estimating Equations'', Chapman & Hall/CRC Press (2003) *Hardin, J.W. and J.M. Hilbe, ''Generalized Linear Models and Extensions'', Stata Press (2001) *Hilbe, Joseph, ''Stata Technical Bulletin Reprints, Volume 2'', (editor) Stata Press (1993) * Hilbe, Joseph, ''Stata Technical Bulletin Reprints, Volume 1'', (editor) Stata Press (1992) *Hilbe, Joseph, ''Sentential Logic'', Educational Services Pub. Co. (1983) ASIN: 1881228606 *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''Fundamentals of Conceptual Analysis'', Kendall/Hunt (1977) *Hilbe, Joseph, ''Philosophical Foundations of Law'', Educational Services Pub. Co. (1973) ASIN: B005ONKCO2 *Hilbe, J.M, ''Philosophy: Past and Present'' (2 volume), Educational Services Pub Co (1972) ASIN: B0052GQ4JI *Hilbe, J.M., ''Experiencing Philosophy'', Educational Services Pub. Co. (1970) ASIN: B0082YUQLE

Publications: Major Book Chapters and Encyclopedia Articles

*Hilbe, Joseph M., (2012), ''Astrostatistics: A Brief History and View into the Future'' in Hilbe, J.M (ed) ''Astrostatistical Challenges for the New Astronomy'', New York: Springer *Hilbe, Joseph M., (2012), ''Astrostatistics in the International Arena'' in Feigelson, E.D. and G.J. Babu, (ed) ''Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy V'', New York: Springer *Hilbe, J.M. and W.H. Greene, (2011), ''Chapter 4: Count Response Regression Models'', in

C. R. Rao Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao FRS (born 10 September 1920), commonly known as C. R. Rao, is an Indian-American mathematician and statistician. He is currently professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University and Research Professor at the Un ...

, J.P. Miller, and D.C.Rao (Eds), ''Essential Statistical Methods for Medical Statistics'', Oxford, UK: New Holland *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''Logistic Regression'', ''StatProb: The Encyclopedia Sponsored by Statistics and Probability Societies'' (2010). *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''Modeling Count Data'', ''StatProb: The Encyclopedia Sponsored by Statistics and Probability Societies'' (2010). *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''Generalized Linear Models'', ''StatProb: The Encyclopedia Sponsored by Statistics and Probability Societies'' (2010),. *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''Logistic Regression'' in M. Lovric (editor), ''International Encyclopedia of Statistical Science'', New York: Springer (2010). *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''Modeling Count Data'' in M. Lovric (editor), ''International Encyclopedia of Statistical Science'', New York: Springer (2010). *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''Generalized Linear Models'' in M. Lovric (editor), ''International Encyclopedia of Statistical Science'', New York: Springer (2010). *Hilbe, Joseph M, ''Statistical Software for the Social Sciences'', in Kolenikov, S., L A. Thombs, and D. Steinley, (Eds), ''Statistics in the Social Sciences: Current Methodological Developments'', Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. pages 175–189.(2010) *Hilbe, J.M., G. Miner, and R. Nisbet, ''Astro-Statistics: Data Mining of SkyLab Project: Hubble Telescope Star and Galaxy Data'', Tutorial SS, in Nisbet, R, J. Elder, and G. Miner (Eds), ''Handbook of Statistical Analysis & Data Mining Applications'', New York:Elsevier (2009), *Hilbe, J.M. and J.W. Hardin, ''Generalized Estimating Equations for Longitudinal Panel Analysis'' in S. Menard (Editor), ''Handbook of Longitudinal Research: Design, Measurement, and Analysis across the Social Sciences'', London, UK: Academic Press/Elsevier (2007). *Hilbe, Joseph and William Greene, ''Count Response Regression Models'', in C.R. Rao, J.P. Miller, and D.C.Rao (Editors), ''Handbook of Statistics, Vol 27: Epidemiology and Medical Statistics'', London, UK: North Holland/Elsevier (2007). *Holmes, J.D., J. Rohn, and J. Hilbe, ''Informatics and Software Applications for Data Analyses'' in Van Beneden, C. and N. Mikanatha, (editors), ''Infectious Disease Surveillance'', London: Blackwell (2007). *Hardin, J.W. and J.M. Hilbe (2007). "Generalized Estimating Equations" in ''Encyclopedia of Clinical Trials'', New York: Wiley & Son Pub. *Hilbe, Joseph M., ''The Coevolution of Statistics and Hz.'' In S. Sawilowsky (ed.),''Real Data Analysis'', American Educational Research Association, SIG/Educational Statisticians: Information Age Publishing (2006). *Hamilton, L. and J. Hilbe ''Statistical Analysis Using Stata'', in R. Stine & J. Fox (Editors), ''Statistical Computing Environments for Social Research'', Sage Publishing Co. (1997). *Hilbe, J. and B. Turlach, ''Generalized Linear Models'', in W. Haerdle, S. Klinke, B Turlach (Editors), ''XploRe: An interactive Statistical Computing Environment'', Springer-Verlag (1995).

References

External links