Jane Worcester
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Jane Worcester | |
|---|---|
| Died | 8 October 1989 Falmouth, Massachusetts |
| Alma mater | Smith College, Harvard University |
| Awards | Fellow of the American Statistical Association |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biostatistics, Epidemiology |
| Institutions | Harvard School of Public Health |
| Thesis | The Epidemiology of Streptococcal and Non-Streptococcal Respiratory Disease (1947) |
| Doctoral advisor | Edwin B. Wilson |
Jane Worcester (died 8 October 1989)[1] was a biostatistician and epidemiologist who became the second tenured female professor, after Martha May Eliot, and the first female chair of biostatistics in the Harvard School of Public Health.[2][3]
Worcester graduated from Smith College in 1931, with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, and was hired by Harvard biostatistician Edwin B. Wilson to become a human computer at Harvard.[2][4] She was hired because of her strong background in statistics.[1] They continued to work together on theoretical research in biostatistics until Wilson retired as chair of the department in 1945,[2] eventually publishing 27 papers together.[1] Worcester completed a Ph.D. in epidemiology at Harvard under Wilson's supervision in 1947; her dissertation was The Epidemiology of Streptococcal and Non-Streptococcal Respiratory Disease.[5]
She joined the Harvard faculty, was granted tenure in 1962,[3] and succeeded Robert Reed as chair of the Department of Biostatistics in 1974[1] until 1977, when she retired.[1][2][6]
She moved to Falmouth on Cape Cod and died there on October 8, 1989 at 88 years of age.
