role in creating the Institute of
Harry C. Carver (on the faculty at
Mathematical Statistics (IMS),
Michigan from 1916–1960)
which was founded at a meet-
ing in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in
September of 1935.
Others with interests in
During the 1950s and
statistics and probability
1960s, an increasing num-
ber of U.S. universities began
at Michigan in the early
establishing separate statistics
days included Cecil Craig
departments. The Department
(1931–1967), Paul Dwyer of Statistics at Michigan was
(1937–1971), Donald
founded within the College of
Darling (1949–1969), Paul
Literature, Science, and the Arts
in September of 1969. At the
Halmos (1961–1969),
time, there were about 10 fac-
Leslie Kish (1947–1981), Herbert Robbins (1967–1971),
ulty members. Bill Ericson was
and L. J. Savage (1960–1965). Several well-known the first chair, and other found-
figures—such as Savage, Howard Raiffa, Frank Sptizer,
ing members included Bruce
G. P. Patil, and Erhan Çinlar—earned their PhDs at
Hill and Michael Woodroofe.
Michigan before the department was founded.
The department was located in
Mason Hall, where it stayed for
The following have served as department chairs: Bill Ericson
30 years.
Starting in the late 1970s, the
(1969–1977), Michael Woodroofe (1977–1983), Ed Rothman
department had primary respon-
(1983–1989), Robb Muirhead (1989–1995), Jeff Wu (1995–1998),
sibility for teaching undergradu-
Vijay nair (1998–2003; 2004–), and Julian Faraway (2003–2004) ate statistics courses. Since that
time, the department has devel-
oped and offered many introduc-
tory courses, one of which has
about 1,600 students enrolled
per semester. The department
also developed and offers courses
with other departments, includ-
ing biostatistics, bioinformatics,
economics, industrial and opera-
tions engineering, mathematics,
and philosophy.
The undergraduate concen-
tration program in statistics
was established in 1977. A new
master’s degree in applied sta-
tistics was created in 1985, and
there is also a master’s in statis-
tics tailored to PhD students
enrolled in another program
at Michigan. Two undergradu-
ate minor programs—applied
statistics and statistics—were
started in 1999. A new inter-
disciplinary undergraduate
program in informatics, joint
with the Computer Science and
Engineering Department and
the School of Information (see
www.informatics.umich.edu), was
28 AMSTAT NEwS SEPTEMbER 2009
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