Ronald Fisher

Biography

Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was a British polymath who made groundbreaking contributions to statistics, genetics, and evolutionary biology. Born in East Finchley, London, he attended Harrow School and then studied mathematics at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge. Despite poor eyesight, he developed a unique skill in visualizing geometrical problems without needing paper, which shaped his entire career. He is considered the most significant figure in 20th-century statistics and, according to Richard Dawkins, the greatest successor to Darwin in biology.

Starting in 1919, Fisher spent fourteen years at the Rothamsted Experimental Station in Hertfordshire, where he analyzed a large amount of agricultural data collected since the 1840s. During this time, he created the analysis of variance (ANOVA), a statistical method now essential in both the biological and social sciences. He also introduced the modern method of maximum likelihood estimation and explored its theoretical properties. His 1925 book "Statistical Methods for Research Workers" became a key text in applied statistics. His 1935 book "The Design of Experiments" introduced the idea of the null hypothesis and the principles of randomized experimental design.

In genetics, Fisher did what no one had done before: he connected Gregor Mendel's work with Darwin's theory of natural selection using detailed mathematical analysis. His 1918 paper on the correlation between relatives showed that continuous variations in traits are due to multiple Mendelian genes working together, uniting the Mendelian and biometrical schools of heredity. His 1930 book "The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection" was a major work in evolutionary thought, providing the mathematical foundation for natural selection and contributing to the modern evolutionary synthesis. Alongside J. B. S. Haldane and Sewall Wright, Fisher is recognized as one of the three main founders of population genetics.

Fisher also made important contributions to the theory of sexual selection, explaining ideas like Fisher's principle on equal sex ratios, the Fisherian runaway process, and the sexy son hypothesis. He led the way in linkage analysis and gene mapping, and his work in multivariate statistics opened new research paths. He was married to Ruth Eileen Guinness and had a large family. Later in his career, he was a professor at University College London and then held the Balfour Chair of Genetics at the University of Cambridge. After retiring, he moved to Adelaide, Australia, where he passed away on 29 July 1962.