John Chambers (statistician)

Last updated

John Chambers
Born
John McKinley Chambers
Alma mater University of Toronto (BSc)
Harvard University (MA, PhD)
Known for R programming language
Awards
Scientific career
Fields Statistical computing
Institutions
Website statweb.stanford.edu/~jmc4/

John McKinley Chambers is the creator of the S programming language, and core member of the R programming language project. He was awarded the 1998 ACM Software System Award for developing S. [1]

Contents

Early life

Chambers received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto in 1963. He received a Master of Arts in 1965 and a PhD degree in 1966, both in statistics, from Harvard University. [1] [2] [3]

Career

Chambers started at Bell Laboratories in 1966 as a member of its technical staff. [1] [3] From 1981 to 1983, he was the head of its Advanced Software Department and from 1983 to 1989 he was the head of its Statistics and Data Analysis Research Department. [1] [3] In 1989, he moved back to full-time research and in 1995, he became a distinguished member of the technical staff. [1] [3] In 1997, he was made the first Fellow of Bell Labs and was cited for "pioneering contributions to the field of statistical computing". [1] He remained a distinguished member of the technical staff and a Fellow until his retirement from Bell Labs in 2005. [3]

After retiring from Bell Labs, Chambers became a visiting professor at the University of Auckland, University of California, Los Angeles and Stanford University. [3] [4] Since 2008, he has been active at Stanford, currently serving as Senior Advisor of its data science program and an adjunct professor in Stanford's Department of Statistics. [3]

Chambers is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. [3] [2]

Awards and accomplishments

Chambers has received the following awards:

John M. Chambers Statistical Software Award

Following his 1998 ACM Software System Award, Chambers donated his prize money (US$10,000) to the American Statistical Association to endow an award for novel statistical software, the John M. Chambers Statistical Software Award. [5]

Bibliography

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References