John Nelder

John Ashworth Nelder

Born	(1924-10-08)8 October 1924 Brushford, Somerset, England
Died	7 August 2010(2010-08-07) (aged 85) Luton, Bedfordshire, England
Residence	United Kingdom
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Fields	Statistics
Institutions	National Vegetable Research Station Rothamsted Experimental Station Imperial College London
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Known for	Generalized linear models, analysis of complex experimental designs, Nelder–Mead algorithm, GLIM, GenStat
Notable awards	Fellow of the Royal Society (1976) Guy Medal (Silver, 1977) (Gold, 2005)

John Ashworth Nelder FRS (8 October 1924 – 7 August 2010) was a British statistician known for his contributions to experimental design, analysis of variance, computational statistics, and statistical theory.

Contributions

Nelder's work was influential in statistics. While leading research at Rothamsted Experimental Station, Nelder developed and supervised the updating of the statistical software packages GLIM and GenStat: Both packages are flexible high-level programming languages that allow statisticians to formulate linear models concisely.^[1] GLIM influenced later environments for statistical computing such as S-PLUS and R. Both GLIM and GenStat have powerful facilities for the analysis of variance for block experiments, an area where Nelder made many contributions.

In statistical theory, Nelder and Wedderburn proposed the generalized linear model. Generalized linear models were formulated by John Nelder and Robert Wedderburn as a way of unifying various other statistical models, including linear regression, logistic regression and Poisson regression.^[2] They proposed an iteratively reweighted least squares method for maximum likelihood estimation of the model parameters.

In statistical inference, Nelder (along with George Barnard and A. W. F. Edwards) emphasized the importance of the likelihood in data analysis, promoting this "likelihood approach" as an alternative to frequentist and Bayesian statistics.

In response-surface optimization, Nelder and Roger Mead proposed the Nelder-Mead simplex heuristic, widely used in engineering and statistics.

Biography

Born in Brushford, near Dulverton, Somerset, Nelder was educated at Blundell's School and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he read mathematics.

Nelder's appointments included Head of the Statistics Section at the National Vegetable Research Station, Wellesbourne from 1951 to 1968 and Head of the Statistics Department at Rothamsted Experimental Station from 1968 to 1984. During his time at Wellesbourne he spent a year (1965–1966) at the Waite Institute in Adelaide, South Australia, where he worked with Graham Wilkinson on Genstat. He held an appointment as Visiting Professor at Imperial College London from 1972 onwards.

He was responsible, with Max Nicholson and James Ferguson-Lees, for debunking the Hastings Rarities – sightings of a series of rare birds, preserved by a taxidermist and provided with bogus histories.^[3]

Nelder died on 7 August 2010 in Luton and Dunstable Hospital, taken there after a fall at home, which was incidental to the cause of death.^[4]

Awards and distinctions

Nelder was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1976^[5] and received the Royal Statistical Society's Guy Medal in Gold in 2005. He was also the recipient of the inaugural Karl Pearson Prize of the International Statistical Institute, with Peter McCullagh, "for their monograph Generalized Linear Models (1983)".^[6]

As tribute on his eightieth birthday, a festschrift Methods and Models in Statistics: In Honour of Professor John Nelder, FRS was edited by Niall Adams, Martin Crowder, David J Hand & Dave Stephens, Imperial College Press (2004).^[7]

The first annual John Nelder memorial lecture was held at Imperial College London, on 8 March 2012, as part of the Mathematics department Colloquium series. The lecture was given by John's long term co-author, Prof Peter McCullagh. An interview^[8] with Peter McCullagh, about statistical modelling, includes some reminiscences about John.

Selected publications

JN and R. W. M. Wedderburn, "Generalized Linear Models", J. R. Statist. Soc. A, 135 (1972) 370–384.
McCullagh, P. and J.A. Nelder. 1989. Generalized Linear Models. 2nd ed. Chapman & Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, Florida. ISBN 0-412-31760-5
Lee, Y., J.A. Nelder, and Y. Pawitan. 2006. Generalized Linear Models with Random Effects: Unified Analysis via H-likelihood. Chapman & Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, Florida. ISBN 1-58488-631-5

References

↑ Payne, Roger; Senn, Stephen (23 September 2010). "John Nelder obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
↑ Nelder, John; Wedderburn, Robert (1972). "Generalized Linear Models". Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General). 135 (3): 370–384. doi:10.2307/2344614. JSTOR 2344614.
↑ Nelder, J.A. (1962). A statistical examination of the Hastings Rarities. British Birds, August 1962.
↑ Payne, Roger. "John Ashworth Nelder". VSN International. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
↑ Royal Society citation
↑ "The inaugural Karl Pearson Prize". The International Statistical Institute. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
↑ Imperial College Press Newsletter
↑

External links

Guy Medallists

Gold Medallists

Silver Medallists

John Glover (1893)
Augustus Sauerbeck (1894)
A. L. Bowley (1895)
F. J. Atkinson (1897)
C. S. Loch (1899)
Richard Crawford (1900)
Thomas A. Welton (1901)
R. H. Hooker (1902)
Yves Guyot (1903)
D. A. Thomas (1904)
R. H. Rew (1905)
W. H. Shaw (1906)
N. A. Humphreys (1907)
Edward Brabrook (1909)
G. H. Wood (1910)
R. Dudfield (1913)
S. Rowson (1914)
S. J. Chapman (1915)
J. S. Nicholson (1918)
J. C. Stamp (1919)
A. William Flux (1921)
H. W. Macrosty (1927)
Ethel Newbold (1928)
H. E. Soper (1930)
J. H. Jones (1934)
E. C. Snow (1935)
R. G. Hawtrey (1936)
E. C. Ramsbottom (1938)
L. Isserlis (1939)
H. Leak (1940)
M. G. Kendall (1945)
Harry Campion (1950)
F. A. A. Menzler (1951)
M. S. Bartlett (1952)
J. O. Irwin (1953)
L. H. C. Tippett (1954)
D. G. Kendall (1955)
Henry Daniels (1957)
G. A. Barnard (1958)
E. C. Fieller (1960)
D. R. Cox (1961)
P. V. Sukhatme (1962)
George E. P. Box (1964)
C. R. Rao (1965)
Peter Whittle (1966)
Dennis Lindley (1968)
Robin Plackett (1973)
James Durbin (1976)
John Nelder (1977)
Peter Armitage (1978)
Michael Healy (1979)
M. Stone (1980)
John Kingman (1981)
Henry Wynn (1982)
Julian Besag (1983)
J. C. Gittins (1984)
A. Bissell (1985)
W. Pridmore (1985)
Richard Peto (1986)
John Copas (1987)
John Aitchison (1988)
F. P. Kelly (1989)
David Clayton (1990)
R. L. Smith (1991)
Robert Curnow (1992)
A. F. M. Smith (1993)
David Spiegelhalter (1994)
B. W. Silverman (1995)
Steffen Lauritzen (1996)
Peter Diggle (1997)
Harvey Goldstein (1998)
Peter Green (1999)
Walter Gilks (2000)
Philip Dawid (2001)
David Hand (2002)
Kanti Mardia (2003)
Peter Donnelly (2004)
Peter McCullagh (2005)
Michael Titterington (2006)
Howell Tong (2007)
Gareth Roberts (2008)
Sylvia Richardson (2009)
Iain M. Johnstone (2010)
P. G. Hall (2011)
David Firth (2012)
Brian Ripley (2013)
Jianqing Fan (2014)

Bronze Medallists

William Gemmell Cochran (1936)
R. F. George (1938)
W. J. Jennett (1949)
Peter Armitage (1962)
James Durbin (1966)
F. Downton (1967)
Robin Plackett (1968)
M. C. Pike (1969)
P. G. Moore (1970)
D. J. Bartholomew (1971)
G. N. Wilkinson (1974)
A. F. Bissell (1975)
P. L. Goldsmith (1976)
A. F. M. Smith (1977)
Philip Dawid (1978)
T. M. F. Smith (1979)
A. J. Fox (1980)
S. J. Pocock (1982)
Peter McCullagh (1983)
Bernard Silverman (1984)
David Spiegelhalter (1985)
D. F. Hendry (1986)
Peter Green (1987)
S. C. Darby (1988)
S. M. Gore (1989)
Valerie Isham (1990)
M. G. Kenward (1991)
C. Jennison (1992)
Jonathan Tawn (1993)
R. F. A. Poultney (1994)
Iain M. Johnstone (1995)
J. N. S. Matthews (1996)
Gareth Roberts (1997)
D. Firth (1998)
P. W. F. Smith
J. Forster (1999)
J. Wakefield (2000)
Guy Nason (2001)
Geert Molenberghs (2002)
Peter Lynn (2003)
Nicola Best (2004)
Steve Brooks (2005)
Matthew Stephens (2006)
Paul Fearnhead (2007)
Fiona Steele (2008)
Chris Holmes (2009)
Omiros Papaspiliopoulos (2010)
Nicolai Meinshausen (2011)
Richard Samworth (2012)
Piotr Fryzlewicz (2013)
Ming Yuan (2014)

Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society

19th century	1834–1836 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1836–1838 Sir Charles Lemon, Bt 1838–1840 The Earl FitzWilliam 1840–1842 Viscount Sandon 1842–1843 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1843–1845 Lord Ashley 1845–1847 The Lord Monteagle of Brandon 1847–1849 The Earl FitzWilliam 1849–1851 The Earl of Harrowby 1851–1853 The Lord Overstone 1853–1855 The Earl FitzWilliam 1855–1857 The Earl of Harrowby 1857–1859 Lord Stanley 1859–1861 Lord John Russell 1861–1863 Sir John Pakington, Bt 1863–1865 William Henry Sykes 1865–1867 The Lord Houghton 1867–1869 William Ewart Gladstone 1869–1871 William Newmarch 1871–1873 William Farr 1873–1875 William Guy 1875–1877 James Heywood 1877–1879 George Shaw-Lefevre 1879–1880 Thomas Brassey 1880–1882 James Caird 1882–1884 Robert Giffen 1884–1886 Rawson W. Rawson 1886–1888 George Goschen 1888–1890 Thomas Graham Balfour 1890–1892 Frederic J. Mouat 1892–1894 Charles Booth 1894–1896 The Lord Farrer 1896–1897 John Biddulph Martin 1897 Alfred Edmund Bateman 1897–1899 Leonard Courtney 1899–1900 Henry Fowler 1900–1902 The Lord Avebury

20th century	1902–1904 Patrick George Craigie 1904–1905 Sir Francis Powell, Bt 1905–1906 The Earl of Onslow 1906–1907 Richard Martin 1907–1909 Sir Charles Dilke, Bt 1909–1910 Jervoise Athelstane Baines 1910–1912 Lord George Hamilton 1912–1914 Francis Ysidro Edgeworth 1914–1915 The Lord Welby 1915–1916 Lord George Hamilton 1916–1918 Bernard Mallet, Registrar General 1918–1920 Herbert Samuel 1920–1922 R. Henry Rew 1922–1924 The Lord Emmott 1924–1926 Udny Yule 1926–1928 The Viscount D'Abernon 1928–1930 A. William Flux 1930–1932 Sir Josiah Stamp 1932–1934 The Lord Meston 1934–1936 Major Greenwood 1936–1938 The Lord Kennet 1938–1940 Arthur Lyon Bowley 1940–1941 Henry William Macrosty 1941 Hector Leak 1941–1943 William Beveridge 1943–1945 Charles Ernest Snow 1945–1947 The Lord Woolton 1947–1949 David Heron 1949–1950 Sir Geoffrey Heyworth 1950–1952 Austin Bradford Hill 1952–1954 Ronald Fisher 1954–1955 The Lord Piercy 1955–1957 Egon Pearson 1957–1959 Harry Campion 1959–1960 Hugh Beaver 1960–1962 Maurice Kendall 1962–1964 Joseph Oscar Irwin 1964–1965 Sir Paul Chambers 1965–1966 L. H. C. Tippett 1966–1967 M. S. Bartlett 1967–1968 Frank Yates 1968–1969 Arthur Cockfield 1969–1970 R. G. D. Allen 1970–1971 Bernard Benjamin 1971–1972 George Alfred Barnard 1972–1973 Harold Wilson 1973–1974 D. J. Finney 1974–1975 Henry Daniels 1975–1977 Stella Cunliffe 1977–1978 Henry Wynn 1978–1980 Sir Claus Moser 1980–1982 David Cox 1982–1984 Peter Armitage 1984–1985 Walter Bodmer 1985–1986 John Nelder 1986–1987 James Durbin 1987–1989 John Kingman 1989–1991 Peter G. Moore 1991–1993 T. M. F. Smith 1993–1995 D. J. Bartholomew 1995–1997 Adrian Smith 1997–1999 R. N. Curnow 1999–2001 Denise Lievesley

21st century	2001–2003 Peter Green 2003–2005 Andy Grieve 2005–2007 Tim Holt 2008–2009 David Hand 2010–2010 Bernard Silverman (resigned Feb 2010; replaced pro tem by David Hand) 2011–2012 Valerie Isham 2013–John Pullinger

Category List

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 41908306 LCCN: n83059905 ISNI: 0000 0001 0891 4091 GND: 1070718866 SUDOC: 032059892 BNF: cb123162245 (data)

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