Gertrude Mary Cox
American statistician (1900–1978)
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Through Statistics and Design of experiments
Early life and education
Gertrude Cox was born in Dayton, Iowa on January 13, 1900. She studied at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa, graduating in 1918. At this time she decided to become a deaconess in the Methodist Church and worked towards that end. However, in 1925, she decided to continue her education at Iowa State College (which was renamed Iowa State University in 1959) in Ames where she studied mathematics and statistics and was awarded a B.S. in 1929 and a Master's degree in statistics in 1931.
From 1931 to 1933 Cox undertook graduate studies in psychological statistics at the University of California at Berkeley, then returned to Iowa State College to assist in establishing the new Statistical Laboratory. Here she worked on the design of experiments.
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Academic career
In 1939 Cox was appointed assistant professor of statistics at Iowa State College. In 1940 Cox was appointed professor of statistics at North Carolina State College (now North Carolina State University) at Raleigh. There she headed the new department of Experimental Statistics, the first female head of any department at this institution. In 1945 she became director of the Institute of Statistics of the Consolidated University of North Carolina, and the Statistics Research Division of the North Carolina State College which was run by William Gemmell Cochran. In the same year of 1945 Cox became the editor of Biometrics Bulletin and of Biometrics and she held this editorship for 10 years. When prolific statistician and eugenicist Ronald Fisher founded the International Biometric Society in 1947, Cox was one of the founding members.
In 1960 she took up her final post as Director of Statistics at the Research Triangle Institute in Durham, North Carolina. She held this post until she retired in 1965. After retirement, then worked as a consultant to promote the development of statistical programs in Egypt and Thailand.
Book
In 1950 she published a joint work with William Cochran, Experimental Designs, which became the major reference work on the design of experiments for statisticians for years afterwards.
Recognition
Cox has received many honors. In 1949, she became the first woman elected into the International Statistical Institute. In 1956, she was elected President of the American Statistical Association while in 1975 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She was also a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.
The University of North Carolina system named her an O. Max Gardner Award recipient in 1959. North Carolina State University honored Cox by naming Cox Hall in her honor in 1970, and awarding her a Watauga Medal in 1977. Iowa State College in 1958 awarded her an honorary Doctorate of Science in statistics. The Caucus for Women in Statistics also established a Gertrude M. Cox Scholarship in 1989.