John W. Tukey 100th Birthday Celebration at Princeton University - September 18, 2015

"I believe that the whole country -- scientifically, industrially, financially -- is better off because of John Tukey and bears evidence of his influence." -John Wheeler, Princeton professor of physics

The Center for Statistics and Machine Learning will be celebrating John W. Tukey's 100th birthday with a special conference on September 18, 2015 at Princeton University. The conference will focus on Tukey’s scientific legacy and his enormous impact on modern statistics and data science.

Please go to the Overview page to see more details about the conference and the list of speakers.

John W. Tukey was one of the most influential statisticians of the 20th century.  He was the founding chair of the Department of Statistics at Princeton University. Among his many accomplishments, he pioneered the field of exploratory data analysis, made significant contributions to jackknife estimation, and he invented the Fast Fourier Transform, the box plot, and the computer science terms "bit" and "software."

Although formally trained in mathematics, Tukey's research evolved to focus on practical, common sense approaches in statistics without a heavy reliance on theoretical mathematics. He spent much time working on applied problems with collaborators in academia and industry. Many successful statisticians were trained directly by Tukey or are one of his academic descendants. All of the individuals speaking at this conference either worked directly with Tukey or are in his direct academic lineage.