Robert Vincent ("Bob") Hogg (8 November 1924 – 23 December 2014) 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 professor of statistics of the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

. Hogg is known for his widely used textbooks on

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 ...

(with his 1963 Ph.D. student Elliot Alan Tanis) and on

mathematical statistics Mathematical statistics is the application of probability theory, a branch of mathematics, to statistics, as opposed to techniques for collecting statistical data. Specific mathematical techniques which are used for this include mathematical an ...

(with his 1950 Ph.D. advisor Allen Thornton Craig). Hogg has received recognition for his research on

robust Robustness is the property of being strong and healthy in constitution. When it is transposed into a system, it refers to the ability of tolerating perturbations that might affect the system’s functional body. In the same line ''robustness'' ca ...

and

adaptive Adaptation, in biology, is the process or trait by which organisms or population better match their environment Adaptation may also refer to: Arts * Adaptation (arts), a transfer of a work of art from one medium to another ** Film adaptation, a ...

nonparametric statistics Nonparametric statistics is the branch of statistics that is not based solely on parametrized families of probability distributions (common examples of parameters are the mean and variance). Nonparametric statistics is based on either being distr ...

and for his

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on total quality management and

statistics education Statistics education is the practice of teaching and learning of statistics, along with the associated scholarly research. Statistics is both a formal science and a practical theory of scientific inquiry, and both aspects are considered in stati ...

Academic career

Early life

Born on 8 November 1924 in

Hannibal, Missouri Hannibal is a city along the Mississippi River in Marion and Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 17,312, making it the largest city in Marion County. The bulk of the city is in Mario ...

, Hogg served three years in the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

from 1943 through 1946. In 1947, he graduated from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. With the goal of becoming an

actuary An actuary is a business professional who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. The name of the corresponding field is actuarial science. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require asset man ...

, Hogg matriculated at the mathematics department of the

(then the "

State University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 coll ...

").Pages 137–139 in Randles. However, Hogg studied statistics under Allen Craig, who became his mentor and helped him obtain a job teaching statistics at the Mathematics Department. Hogg earned his Ph.D. 1950 under Allen Craig. After graduating, Hogg remained at the Mathematics Department, where he remained to become a long-serving professor.

Basu's theorem: Special cases

Hogg independently discovered a special case of " Basu's theorem", a few years

before Before is the opposite of after, and may refer to: * ''Before'' (Gold Panda EP), 2009 * ''Before'' (James Blake EP), 2020 * "Before" (song), a 1996 song by the Pet Shop Boys * "Before", a song by the Empire of the Sun from ''Two Vines'' * "Befo ...

the publication by

Deb Basu Debabrata Basu (5 July 1924 – 24 March 2001) was an Indian statistician who made fundamental contributions to the foundations of statistics. Basu invented simple examples that displayed some difficulties of likelihood-based statistics and ...

. Hogg's second paper on the topic of Basu's theorem was never published, because of a negative report by an anonymous referee in 1953. Later, Basu refers "to Hogg and Craig (1956) for several interesting uses Basu's theorem">f Basu's theoremin proving results in distribution theory".

Collaboration and friendship with Allen Craig

The textbook "Hogg and Craig" was innovative, particularly in emphasizing

sufficient statistic In statistics, a statistic is ''sufficient'' with respect to a statistical model and its associated unknown parameter if "no other statistic that can be calculated from the same sample provides any additional information as to the value of the pa ...

s: Sufficient statistics were treated not only for parametric families but also for nonparametric probability distributions: In particular, the sufficiency and completeness of the

order statistics In statistics, the ''k''th order statistic of a statistical sample is equal to its ''k''th-smallest value. Together with rank statistics, order statistics are among the most fundamental tools in non-parametric statistics and inference. Importa ...

from a

continuous Continuity or continuous may refer to: Mathematics * Continuity (mathematics), the opposing concept to discreteness; common examples include ** Continuous probability distribution or random variable in probability and statistics ** Continuous ...

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations * Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...

were treated. Another innovation was the systematic derivation of the distributions of functions of several random variables by using the change-of-variable method. As noted before, Craig was Hogg's mentor, helping him to obtain a teaching position while a graduate student and also supervising his thesis. Later, after Hogg had graduated, Craig became a close friend, and served as the

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at Hogg's wedding and later as the "

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" to each of Hogg's four children. Indeed, Hogg's son Allen was named after Craig.

Chairing a new Department of Statistics

In 1965 Hogg became the founding chair of the new Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, and he remained as the chair for nineteen years. At Iowa, Hogg held other positions, including Chair of the Quality Management and Productivity Program and the Hanson Chair of Manufacturing Productivity. After serving 51 years as an instructor at the University of Iowa, Hogg became Professor Emeritus in 2001.

Statistics education

Hogg has been a leader in

in the US. Hogg has received a number of educational awards by state and national organizations: these awards include the Iowa Governor’s Science Medal for Teaching in 1990, the Iowa Board of Regents' Award for Faculty Excellence in 1992, and the Iowa Section of the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

(MAA)'s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992 with the national MAA's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1993. At the University of Iowa, Hogg won his first teaching award after a student submitted a nomination with the title "There is a hog in my statistics book!".

Honors

Hogg's 70th birthday was marked by a conference organized by 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 ...

, whose proceedings were published as a

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of ''Communications in Statistics – Theory and Methods'' in 1996; in the conference proceedings, a list of Hogg's publications appears on pages 2467–2481. For his research in

, Hogg received the Gottfried Noether Senior Scholar Award in 2001. Hogg has been recognized internationally as a leading researcher in statistics and as an exemplary professor of statistics who has served as a public spokesperson for the profession. Hogg has had a particularly visible role in the United States, where he was elected as President 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 ...

(ASA), serving in 1988. One of the ASA President's tasks is to arrange an annual meeting, and Hogg's diligence was rewarded by the ASA staff, who presented him with the name tag, "

Boss Hogg Jefferson Davis "J.D." Hogg, known as Boss Hogg, is a fictional character featured in the American television series ''The Dukes of Hazzard''. He was the commissioner of Hazzard County, and the county's political boss. Boss Hogg almost always wo ...

" (after the name of a character in the television series ''

The Dukes of Hazzard ''The Dukes of Hazzard'' is an American action comedy TV series that was aired on CBS from January 26, 1979 to February 8, 1985. The show aired for 147 episodes spanning seven seasons. It was consistently among the top-rated television series ...

''). Three years after Hogg had served as President, he was awarded the ASA’s Founder’s Award in 1991. Hogg has also been internationally active on behalf of the statistics profession. Hogg is a Fellow of the

, which awarded him its Carver Medal.Page 151 in Randles. Hogg is also 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 ...

References

Textbooks

* ("Hogg and Craig" was first published in 1959.) * , mr = 426223 * Hogg, Robert V., Klugman, Stuart A. ''Loss distributions.'' With the assistance of Charles C. Hewitt and Gary Patrik. Wiley Series in Probability and Mathematical Statistics: Applied Probability and Statistics. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1984. x+235 pp. . * Hogg, Robert V. and Ledolter, J. (1992). ''Applied Statistics for Engineers and Physical Scientists''. Macmillan, New York.

Articles

* * * *

Statistics education and the statistics profession

* Robert V. Hogg (1978). An introduction to mathematical statistics. In ''Studies in Statistics'' (Robert V. Hogg, ed.) 1–7.

(Washington) * Robert V. Hogg (Ed) (1980). Modern statistics: Methods and applications. Arner. Math. Soc. (Providence) * Robert V. Hogg (1982). On graduate programs in statistics. In Teach. Statist. and Statist. Consult. (J.S. Rustagi and D.A. Wolfe, ed.) 71–80. Academic (New York) * Robert V. Hogg and Jim Swift (1982). Statistical education at the school level in the United States and Canada. In Teaching Statistics in Schools Throughout the World (Vic Barnett, ed.) 139–171. Internat. Statist. Inst. (Voorburg, Netherlands) * * Robert V. Hogg (1989). On statistical education in the United States since 1920. In ASA Sesquicentennial Invited Paper Sessions (Mitchell Gail and Norman L. Johnson, eds.) 286–292. Amer. Statist. Assoc. (Alexandria, VA) * , jstor = 2289836 * * *

External links

Hogg's homepage at the University of Iowa

* * ttps://www.ams.org/mathscinet/search/author.html?mrauthid=87200&Submit=Search Hogg at

Mathematical Reviews ''Mathematical Reviews'' is a journal published by the American Mathematical Society (AMS) that contains brief synopses, and in some cases evaluations, of many articles in mathematics, statistics, and theoretical computer science. The AMS also pu ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hogg, Robert Vincent Presidents of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Elected Members of the International Statistical Institute American statisticians Statistics educators 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians University of Iowa faculty University of Iowa alumni University of Illinois alumni People from Hannibal, Missouri 1924 births 2014 deaths People from Highlands Ranch, Colorado Mathematicians from Missouri United States Navy personnel of World War II