Life and achievements
Early life
John Tukey was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1915. His parents, Ralph and Adah Tukey, were both teachers and realized that their son was a prodigy. John’s mother was his teacher, ensuring he was well-educated, especially in mathematics and science. This helped him advance in his learning, and he joined Brown University at the age of sixteen.
Tukey attended Brown University, where he majored in chemistry but took mathematics courses at the same time. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1936 and a master’s in chemistry in 1937. He then joined Princeton University, where he did his PhD in mathematics in 1939, with his area of interest being topology. His initial education in chemistry and mathematics laid a good platform for him to start applying mathematics in solving real-life situations.
Legacy
John Tukey has left an indelible mark in statistics, data science, and other fields. His contribution to data analysis through exploratory data analysis (EDA) made it possible for statisticians to use graphical methods to discover patterns. Tukey’s approach allowed analysts to look at the data without being confined by a particular set of assumptions, which is still relevant in data science. The box plot, stem-and-leaf plot, and other tools he introduced are still used today to help analysts display and summarize large data sets.
Tukey’s contribution was not only to EDA; he made further contributions. His co-creation of the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm made him contribute significantly to signal processing, telecommunications, and audio analysis, as it enhanced data processing speed. He also impacted the computing world by introducing terms such as ‘bit’ and ‘software’ into the language. Such advancements made Tukey one of the leading scholars in the area where statistics, mathematics, and computer science met.
Tukey’s influence was academic and social, as he contributed to society in many ways. He has worked for many government and corporate organizations, including analyzing NBC’s election polls and advising on environmental matters. He also played a part in criticizing the statistical techniques employed in Alfred Kinsey’s much-discussed Kinsey Report on Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. This made Tukey’s work applicable across many disciplines, and thus, his ideas continued to be relevant in fields such as psychology, economics, and engineering, among others.
These achievements earned him several awards, such as the National Medal of Science in 1973 and the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1982. After retiring from the University of California at Berkeley in 1985, Tukey’s ideas and contributions remained relevant in the growth of statistics, data analysis, and computation. His death in 2000 signified the closure of a very inspiring career, but his techniques and concepts are still relevant in the current data analysis.
Milestone moments
Feb 13, 1939
He has a PhD in Mathematics from Princeton University.
John Tukey was born in 1915 and completed his Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton University in 1939.
His doctoral thesis was on abstract mathematics, specifically On Denumerability in Topology, but Tukey soon moved to more practical fields.
He then went to work at Princeton University, where he started combining mathematics and statistics, a precursor to his later work in data analysis.
This accomplishment set the stage for Tukey’s career, encompassing several disciplines and impacting mathematics's theoretical and practical aspects.
Mar 1, 1947
Coining the Term "Bit"
In 1947, Tukey worked with John von Neumann on developing early computer systems. During this time, he introduced the term ‘bit,’ an abbreviation for binary digit.
It was adopted into digital computing, which referred to the smallest unit of information in the binary code system used in all modern computers.
Tukey’s work in the language of computing paved the way for the future of information technology and his entry into computer science.
This milestone showed how Tukey could move between disciplines and bring mathematical thinking to new fields.
Mar 12, 1965
The history of the Cooley-Tukey Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)
Tukey and Cooley James, 1965) developed the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), an algorithm that changed the face of signal processing.
The FFT allowed for the efficient calculation of a sequence's Fourier transforms used in telecommunication, image processing, and audio analysis.
This development contributed to the growth of computational mathematics and benefited many industries, including medicine and engineering.
The FFT is still one of Tukey’s most influential ideas, demonstrating the extent of his influence on the discipline's theoretical and applied aspects.
Jan 15, 1973
Given the National Medal of Science
1973, President Richard Nixon honored Tukey with the National Medal of Science for his immense contribution to statistics and data analysis.
This award emphasized Tukey’s contribution to establishing essential tools in data analysis, including the EDA and robust statistics.
This prestigious award made Tukey one of the most prominent American scientists of the twentieth century, proving his work's significance in several fields.
The National Medal of Science further enhanced Tukey’s standing as a statistician in academia and the real world.