Mildred Macfarlan Barnard (also known as Mildred Macfarlan Prentice, 5 August 1908 – 9 March 2000) was an Australian biometrician, mathematician and statistician.

Early life and education

Barnard was born in Melbourne on 5 August 1908. Her mother, Jessie Margaret Barnard, helped found the Federal Territory War Food Fund. Her father, Robert James Allman Barnard, became a foundation professor of mathematics at the

Royal Military College, Duntroon lit: Learning promotes strength , established = , type = Military college , chancellor = , head_label = Commandant , head = Brigadier Ana Duncan , principal = , city = Campbell , state = ...

near Canberra, where the family moved in 1911. They returned to Melbourne in the 1920s, when Barnard's father took a position as senior lecturer at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

. Barnard entered the

in 1927. She won a Dixson Scholarship in 1930, the same year that she completed a B.A. with honours in mathematics. She added a B.S. in physics in 1931 and an M.S. in 1932. Her master's thesis concerned the

continuum mechanics Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuous mass rather than as discrete particles. The French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy was the first to formulate such m ...

of a cracked thin plate, and was supervised by

John Henry Michell John Henry Michell, FRS (26 October 1863 – 3 February 1940) was an Australian mathematician, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Melbourne. Early life Michell was the son of John Michell (pronounced Mitchell), a miner, and his wife ...

. In search of a subject that would bring her into more contact with other people, and discouraged by the job prospects for mathematicians and physicists in Australia, Barnard shifted her interests to

biometrics Biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics. Biometric authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. It is also used to identify in ...

. She began her doctoral studies in statistics with

Ronald Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was a British polymath who was active as a mathematician, statistician, biologist, geneticist, and academic. For his work in statistics, he has been described as "a genius who a ...

in the

Galton Laboratory The Galton Laboratory was a laboratory for research into eugenics and then into human genetics based at University College London in London, England. It was originally established in 1904, and became part of UCL's biology department in 1996. The a ...

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

in 1934. She published three papers in this period, on

craniometry Craniometry is measurement of the cranium (the main part of the skull), usually the human cranium. It is a subset of cephalometry, measurement of the head, which in humans is a subset of anthropometry, measurement of the human body. It is disti ...

factorial experiment In statistics, a full factorial experiment is an experiment whose design consists of two or more factors, each with discrete possible values or "levels", and whose experimental units take on all possible combinations of these levels across all s ...

s, and

environmental statistics Environment statistics is the application of statistical methods to environmental science. It covers procedures for dealing with questions concerning the natural environment in its undisturbed state, the interaction of humanity with the environment ...

, and completed her Ph.D. in 1936.

Career and later life

After completing her education, Barnard returned to Australia and became an assistant biometrician in the Division of Forest Products of the

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is South Africa's central and premier scientific research and development organisation. It was established by an act of parliament in 1945 and is situated on its own campus in the cit ...

, beginning in 1936. Although centred at Melbourne, her position also involved spending time in Canberra and Sydney. While at CSIR she worked with

Betty Allan Frances Elizabeth Allan (1905–1952) was an Australian statistician. She was known as the first statistician at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), as "the effective founder of the CSIRO Division of Mathemat ...

. Topics that Barnard researched were the 'holding power of coach screws and the serviceability of railway sleepers and telegraph poles'. In the normal course of events, she would have lost the position when she married in 1939, but the outbreak of World War II, and the need for wood in airplanes, caused greater demands on her office, so her resignation was delayed until the birth of her first child in 1941. While raising a family, she lectured part-time at the University of Melbourne until she and her family moved to Brisbane, where her husband found a position as professor of electrical engineering at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

. She continued her part-time lecturing there and, in 1970, she was appointed as lecturer in mathematical statistics at the University of Queensland. In 1972 she became the first Chairwoman (1972) of the Brisbane Branch of the

International Biometric Society The International Biometric Society (IBS) is an international professional and academic society promoting the development and application of statistical and mathematical theory and methods in the biosciences, including biostatistics. It sponsors ...

, Australasian Region. She died in Brisbane on 9 March 2000.

Book

Barnard's book ''Elementary Statistics for Use in Timber Research'' (with Neil Ditchburn, CSIRO, 1956) was published after being printed twice for CSIRO use.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnard, Mildred 1908 births 2000 deaths 20th-century Australian mathematicians Australian statisticians Australian women mathematicians Australian women statisticians Mathematicians from Melbourne University of Melbourne alumni Alumni of University College London Academic staff of the University of Melbourne Academic staff of the University of Queensland CSIRO people 20th-century women mathematicians 20th-century Australian women