The former UCL statistician, born 150 years ago today, touched academic fields from genetics to relativity
Matt Brown
Who was he? Karl Pearson (1857-1936) was a pioneer of statistics, developing ideas of correlation and regression that have been widely applied across the sciences. He wrote with expertise on many other subjects including the history of science, women’s rights, socialism and medieval German literature. Pearson was also a strong advocate of eugenics.
London connections? Pearson was born in Islington, and lived in the capital for most of his life. His former home at 7 Well Road, Hampstead carries a blue plaque. In 1911, he founded the world’s first department of statistics, at University College London.
Who was in his network? Pearson was a close friend, biographer and intellectual successor of biologist Francis Galton. He had bitter disagreements with fellow statistician Ronald Fisher, who succeeded Pearson as head of UCL’s Galton Laboratory in 1934. He had a more positive influence on Albert Einstein, preempting elements of relativity theory. In 1935, Egon Sharpe Pearson followed his father as Professor of Statistics at UCL.
The Royal Statistical Society will hold a conference on Friday to mark 150 years since Pearson’s birth.