Download Frank Yates

Frank Yates
Born: May 12, 1902 in Manchester England
Died: June 17, 1994 in Harpenden, England
To see a picture of F. Yates, click here:
http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Yates.html
Frank Yates received his education at Wadham House, a private school with an
excellent mathematics teacher who influenced him into the right direction. In 1916, he
obtained a scholarship to study at Clifton College. Four years later, Yates received a
scholarship to St. John’s College at Cambridge from which he graduated with First Class
Honors in 1924.
After spending 2 years as a mathematics teacher and a brief stint as a mathematics
advisor with the Gold Coast Survey, Yates decided to apply for a post at the Rothamsted
Experimental Station. In 1931 he was appointed assistant statistician and in 1934, when
Sir R.A. Fisher was appointed to a chair at University College, Yates become Head of
Statistics. Frank Yates maintained his post at Rothamested until his retirement in 1968.
Yates frequently worked with experimental design and often collaborated with Sir
R.A. Fisher. Working together, Yates and Fisher produced Statistical Tables for
biological, agricultural, and medical research in 1938. He used his experimental design
techniques to study problems such as pest control and human nutrition. He also proposed
Yates’ algorithm in 1937, which was a method of calculating sums of squares. During
his lifetime, Frank Yates made many important contributions to statistics, with a focus on
experimental design.
The information contained in this biography was obtained from the following source(s):
http://www-gap.dcs.stand.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Yates.html
http://www.library.adelaide.edu.au/digitised/fisher/raf.pdf