Maurice Stevenson Bartlett (June 18, 1910 - January 8, 2002) was an English statistician who made particular contributions to the analysis of data with spatial and temporal patterns. He is also known for his work in the theory of statistical inference and in multivariate analysis.

Biography

Born Chiswick, London, Bartlett was raised in a poor family but won a scholarship to Latymer Upper School where he was inspired to the study of statistics by a chapter in Hall and Knight's Algebra. In 1929, he won a scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge where he read mathematics, graduating with the rank of wrangler. He went on to work under John Wishart, attending lectures on relativity by Arthur Eddington and quantum mechanics by Paul Dirac. During his Queens years, he rowed for the college.

In 1933, Bartlett was recruited by Egon Pearson to the new statistics department at University College, London where he mingled with Sir Ronald A. Fisher, J. B. S. Haldane and Jerzy Neyman . In 1934, he became statistician at the ICI agricultural research station at Jealott's Hill where he worked on problems in genetics but also became interested in the characterisation of intelligence. Bartlett left ICI for the University of Cambridge in 1938 but at the outset of World War II was mobilised into the Ministry of Supply , conducting rocket research alongside Frank Anscombe , David Kendall and Pat Moran .

Post-war, Bartlett's renewed Cambridge work focused on time-series analysis and stochastic processes, collaborating with Kendall and Jo Moyal and making a number of visits to the USA. In 1947 he became professor of mathematical statistics at the Victoria University of Manchester where he not only developed his interests into epidemiology but also served as an able and active administrator. In 1960, he took up the chair of statistics at University College, London before serving the last eight years of his academic life as professor of biomathematics at the University of Oxford. He retired in 1975.

After his retirement, Bartlett remained active in statistics, visiting the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University several times. He had married Sheila, daughter of C. E. Chapman , in 1957, the couple parenting a daughter. Bartlett died in Exmouth, Devon.

Works

• An Introduction to Stochastic Processes, (1955) ISBN 0521041163
• Stochastic Population Models in Ecology and Epidemiology, (1960) ISBN 0416523307
• Essays in Probability and Statistics, (1962) ISBN 0416648800
• Probability, Statistics and Time, (1975) ISBN 0412141507
• The Statistical Analysis of Spatial Patern, (1976) ISBN 0412142902
• Selected Papers of M. S. Bartlett (1989)

Autobiography

• I. Olkin (1989) A Conversation with Maurice Bartlett, Statistical Science, 4, 151-163.

• J. Gani (ed) (1982) The Making of Statisticians, New York: Springer-Verlag.

Statisticians, including Bartlett, give their life stories.

Honours

• Rayleigh Prize , (1933);
• Guy Silver Medal of the Royal Statistical Society, (1952), and Guy Gold Medal , (1969);
• President of the Manchester Statistical Society , (1959-1960);
• Fellow of the Royal Society, (1961);
• President of the Royal Statistical Society, (1966-1967);
• Honary Member of the International Statistical Institute , (1980);
• Foreign Associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, (1993);
• D.Sc.s from the University of Chicago, (1966); and the University of Hull, (1976).

External links

• Brief obituary by D. R. Cox

There is a photograph at

• Maurice Stevenson Bartlett on the Portraits of Statisticians page.