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History of statistical research at Rothamsted RSS Section/Study Group Meeting<http://www.statslife.org.uk/events/events-calendar/eventsbyweek/2015/05/14/14?evid=448> Thursday 18 June 2015, 02:00pm - 05:30pm Location Rothamsted Research, West Common, Harpenden AL5 2JQ Programme: 2.00pm Introduction to the Applied Statistics Group at Rothamsted Research Andrew Mead 2.10pm Rothamsted Research and the Classical Experiments - the First Fifty Years (and a bit!) John Jenkyn John Bennet Lawes was not a distinguished scholar but began to develop a latent interest in chemistry soon after leaving University in 1834. A chance conversation with a local landowner proved pivotal; it caused him to a change the direction of his research and sparked an interest in agricultural chemistry that stayed with him for the rest of his life. It led directly to the two important strands in his subsequent life; a profitable business manufacturing and retailing superphosphate fertiliser, and a research laboratory that very soon had an enviable reputation for the quality of its work. This talk will review Lawes' early life, the foundation (in 1843) and early growth of the Laboratory (now known as Rothamsted Research), and the background to the establishment, and especially survival, of the 'Classical Experiments'. 2.40pm The history of statistics at Rothamsted in the twentieth century Giuditta Parolini, Postdoctoral fellow, Technische Universität Berlin and Berliner Zentrum für Wissensgeschichte During the twentieth century statistics has become part of agricultural and biological research at Rothamsted Experimental Station. Alfred Daniel Hall, the agricultural scientist and civil servant in charge of the institution from 1902 to 1912, was the first to promote the use of statistics in the Rothamsted field trials. A decade later, during the 1920s, the statistics department of the institution opened under the guidance of the mathematician and geneticist Ronald Aylmer Fisher. Rothamsted became the birthplace of analysis of variance and experimental design, Fisher's statistical methods nowadays taught in every elementary course of statistics for the experimental and social sciences. Since then the Rothamsted statistics department has remained a reference point for agricultural and biological research in Britain. During WWII the Rothamsted statisticians took part in operational research alongside their head, Frank Yates, and after the conflict the department became a general advisory service for statistics. In the second half of the twentieth century Rothamsted had also a pioneering role in the computerisation of statistics and the software package GenStat, began by John Nelder in the 1960s and still used today, is a notable outcome of that effort. The talk will examine the history of statistics at Rothamsted from the beginning of the twentieth century to the 1970s. It will consider the people - statisticians and experimental scientists - that were instrumental for the emergence of the discipline, the computing tools and information technologies that were adopted at the agricultural institution, and it will investigate how statistics transformed experimental practices in agricultural and biological research at Rothamsted. 4.00pm Tea/coffee and exhibition of calculating equipment and other aspects of Rothamsted history 4.30pm Visits to Classical field experiments Pre-registration with payment is required. Please use the registration form<http://www.statslife.org.uk/files/Registration_form_for_18_June_HSG.doc> to book your place. Contact [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Fees: £20 RSS Concessionary Fellows £25 RSS Fellows £50 for non-Fellows Organiser Name Alison Macfarlane Email Address [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Organising Group(s) RSS History of Statistics Study Group and Rothamsted Research Alison Macfarlane School of Health Sciences City University London 1, Myddelton Street London EC1R 1UW Phone (0) (44) 207 040 5832 Email [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> http://www.city.ac.uk/health/staff-directory/alison-macfarlane This email and its contents are the property of City University London. If you are not the intended recipient of this message and any attached files, please delete it. Unauthorised copying or distribution of this message, its attachments or parts thereof, is strictly prohibited unless specifically stated otherwise. 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