User:Owensmartin/George Washington University Department of Statistics

The Department of Statistics at The George Washington University is the first department of statistics in a college of arts and sciences in the U.S. The department was founded in 1935 with Dr. Frank Weida as chair. Dr. Weida graduated from University of Iowa in 1923.

Writing on the history of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Iowa (Hogg, 2003), Dr. Hogg writes

“The reason I want to mention Frank Weida is because when he left here, he went to George Washington University. And in 1935 he established the first Department of Statistics as we know it. There were statistical groups in Business, but this was the first Department of Statistics in Liberal Arts and/or Science. And so THIS was the first Department of Statistics.”

The department has been served by many outstanding statisticians, including Dr. Solomon Kullback, Dr. Jerome Cornfield, and Dr. Samuel Greenhouse. The Department has played a leading role in statistical education, research, and applications. Many of its graduates now hold high positions in government, the private sector, and academia. The department continues to produce high quality research in both theoretical and applied areas of Statistics and Probability. The department offers the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Statistics; M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biostatistics and in Epidemiology, in collaboration with the School of Public Health and Health Services; and a Graduate Certificate in Survey Design and Data Analysis.