“Fame is easy to acquire, impact is much more difficult.” ~ Hans Rosling
The words of one of the world’s greatest statistical influencers.
Three weeks ago, on February 7, 2017 statistics lost one of its greatest modern-day innovators – Mr. Hans Rosling. The Swedish mastermind created one of the world’s first readily available share of data sets and analysis. The interface provides beautiful illustrations of societal, economic and global issues we face today.
Personally, this is what gets me most excited about statistics – the possibility to pull out useful information, use it to tell a story and then allow that story to work its magic and truly make an impact in the world. Mr. Rosling was determined to make this great power readily available to the general public. His legacy lives on on the GapMinder website (which I strongly encourage you to take a look at). The website and its think-tank team work together to provide pure, non-biased information to the public amidst the false news and biased opinions we see in the media today – they work to “mind the gap” between real and fake information.
Mr. Rosling accomplished not only fame but impact. GapMinder just may be the beginning of a new oscillation in the world of media and journalism – from click-bate articles about Mr. Trump getting spray tans in the Cheeto Factory to understanding how G.D.P correlates with overall life expectancy of nation’s around the world. Mr. Rosling’s GapMinder provides a space for global connection, understanding and initiative.
His great impact has got me thinking – what other statisticians are there that have left an impact on the world? Well, here are five people who I think are the most globally impactful statisticians standing in history besides Mr. Hans Rosling.
1. Gertrude Mary Cox – The First Lady of Statistics
Ms. Cox is the first female statistician that paved the way for so many women – myself included – to engage in the mathematical/technical study of statistics. She founded the first statistics department birthed at North Carolina State University. While at North Carolina, she was the first female full professor.
Involved with many statistical associations including American Statistical Association, Ms. Cox impacted the world with statistics as her tool for change. She traveled the world educating other nations about the power of statistics and developing their statistical agencies.
Many firsts for the field came from the innovative, passionate and inspiring Gertrude Cox.
2. Nate Silver
He is working hard to incorporate the world of politics and sports into the world of statistics through the powerful pen we call journalism. To follow this endeavor, he created the website FiveThirtyEight –a place where data journalists come together and publish their findings. Now, the website works in collaboration with ESPN – a great step in the story-telling process. Some of his greatest work is in the statistical game of baseball. He has developed systems used to predict players’ performance based on several different variables. Silver is impacting the world in different ways – from journalism to one of America’s most beloved sports games. We cannot wait to see where Silver’s endeavors take the world of statistics.
3. Florence Nightingale - The Lady with the Lamp
She was one of those people who can take the darkest of situations and turn it into something incredible – truly impactful. Ms. Nightingale arrived at the British Hospital during the Crimean War to find soldiers sick and dying in truly horrendous conditions. By collecting data and creating new forms of data visualization, Florence Nightingale changed the course of this hospital’s historical impact and arguably saved lives. She discovered that poor sanitary practices were strongly correlated with the high mortality in hospitals. She used statistics to pull out vital information, tell a story and allowed that story to change the course of history.
4. Jerome Cornfield
He established the relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, becoming a legend in the field of both epidemiology and statistics. Cornfield provided the evidence to establish the relationship between these two variables as “causal”, saving lives through the power of statistics. The U.S. Surgeon General used Cornfield’s research to back the causal statement made to the U.S. citizenship in 1965. Cornfield impacted the wellbeing of so many, changed the way we see the potential for causal relationships in statistics and created a key understanding for the medical field which, in turn, saved lives.
5. Jake Porway
He is the founder of DataKind – an agency for data scientists to work in human rights and global issues, using data to solve some of the world’s most plaguing issues. DataKind follows the seeks to provide the information to solve world hunger or aid child trafficking. This is the potential for impact Porway saw when he created the influential company. Data Science is revolutionizing as we speak, and Jake Porway plans for his company to be at the forefront of the revolution, impacting the world one data set at a time.
As I begin my life as a statistician, I see the potential for impact. The men and women listed above are the ones who most inspire me.
I hope I can pull the evident passion from Mr. Rosling, the innovation for women from Ms. Cox, the journalistic initiative from Mr. Silver, the sympathetic passion from Ms. Nightingale, the innovation from Mr. Cornfield and the zeal for social justice from Mr. Porway.
Above all else, I hope that in my work as a statistician I never lose sight of one thing, that statistics = power, and that is truly significant.
