JEM
6 articles published in Tangente
History and CultureN°86May 16, 2023Catherine Com-Nougué: a career devoted to teaching
Many biostatisticians in academia and the private sector were trained by Catherine Com-Nougué (1944–2017) and impressed by her gifts as a teacher.
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History and CultureN°86May 16, 2023Alain Desrosières: when numbers are not neutral
A graduate of the École polytechnique (class of 1960) who was deeply engaged with political and civic issues, Alain Desrosières (1940–2013) chose the École nationale de la statistique et de l’administration économique and became an Insee administrator in 1965.
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History and CultureN°86May 16, 2023Karl Pearson: from cause to contingency
The British mathematician Karl Pearson (1857–1936) was a socialist-leaning freethinker and feminist.
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History and CultureN°86May 16, 2023Margaret Hogg and the origins of random sampling
Margaret Hope Hogg was born in Scotland on October 15, 1894. After studying statistics, she joined the London School of Economics, where she worked from 1919 to 1925 under Arthur Lyon Bowley (1869–1957), renowned for his research into surveys conducted by "representative sampling."
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History and CultureN°86May 16, 2023Adolphe Quetelet and the "average man"
Born in Ghent on February 22, 1796, French, then Dutch, and finally Belgian after 1830, Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874) was the very model of a cultured polymath. After defending a thesis in geometry, he worked in scientific fields beyond pure mathematics.
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History and CultureN°86May 16, 2023Florence Nightingale and the sanitary design of hospitals
Born in Florence, in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) came from a wealthy, upper-class British family. From an early age, she was deeply concerned about the living conditions of the poor and about healthcare.
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