Joint Colloquium: Boland -- W. S. Gosset or ’Student’ Guinness Brewer in Charge of Statistics

Speaker: Prof. Philip J.  Boland (UCD)

http://mathsci.ucd.ie/people/boland_p

Time: Friday, March 16, 2:30--3:30PM

Room: Carslaw 175 (Sydney Univ.)

Talk Poster from Speaker: 

http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/zhangou/Boland.pdf 

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Title: W. S. Gosset or ’Student’ Guinness Brewer 
in Charge of Statistics

Abstract: William Sealy Gosset (alias “Student”) was an 
immensely talented scientist with many interests, but he 
is best known for his contributions to modern statistics. 
Born in 1876 in Canterbury, England, he studied chemistry 
and mathematics at Oxford. He joined the St James’s Gate 
Brewery of Arthur Guinness, Son & Co., Dublin, in October 
1899 as a Junior Brewer in order to assist in the development 
and application of scientific methods in brewing. He was 
appointed Brewer in charge of the newly established 
experimental brewery in 1907 and later established the 
statistical department, which he ran until 1936. He then 
transferred to the new Park Royal Brewery in London, where 
he became the (first) Head Brewer until his death the 
following year in 1937. His practical work led to important 
theoretical discoveries in the discipline of statistics, 
in particular to “Student’s  t-test of significance”. 
However most of Gosset’s time in the brewery was taken 
up by business matters and the proportion of time he was 
able to devote to statistical questions was relatively 
small.  In this presentation I intend to highlight the 
extent and variety of his work at Guinness as the Brewer 
(i/c) in charge of Statistics.

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Lunch: we meet around 1PM at the Level 2 entry to Carslaw 
Building and then head to Grandstand (arriving around 
1:15PM).