Frederick Mosteller
Frederick Mosteller, former head of the HSPH Departments of Biostatistics and Health Policy and Management, passed away on July 23 at the age of 89.
Dean Barry Bloom described Mosteller as a giant in his field, who is referred to in discussions of statistical and epidemiological issues as setting the intellectual gold standard.
As a PhD student, Mosteller was part of a famous mathematics community at Princeton in the 1940s and then came to the Social Relations Department at Harvard, eventually becoming Professor of Mathematical Statistics and acting chair of that department, and then chairman of what was then the new Statistics Department-created through his concerted effort. He subsequently chaired the Department of Biostatistics at HSPH (1977-1981) and the Department of Health Policy and Management (1981-87). In total, Mosteller chaired four departments at Harvard, an unmatched feat to this day.
The scope and size of the HSPH Department of Biostatistics changed radically on his arrival, with intellectual innovations and strong hirings transforming it into one of the top biostatistics units in the world. Mosteller recruited Marvin Zelen, Professor of Statistical Science, and the entire Department of Biostatistics from SUNY Buffalo.
With a practical approach to statistics and sensitive to its usefulness in public policy, Mosteller was a major force in statistics teaching at all levels, including the first television course in statistics in 1961 called "Continental Classroom" for NBC. Many of his works are considered classic texts including Understanding Robust and Exploratory Data Analysis (Hoaglin, Mosteller, and Tukey). In a lasting achievement in public health statistical methods, he has been credited with introducing meta-analysis to the statistical armament, enabling risk factors and results to be teased out of disparate or incomplete data sets.
In Health Policy and Management, Mosteller steered the department toward an emphasis on research and original scholarship. His statistical creativity was applied as well to the field of education and evaluation of social policies, including a fruitful collaboration with Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then a professor of government at Harvard, resulting in the 1972 landmark publication On Equality of Educational Opportunity.
Mosteller is survived by a son, William, a daughter, Gale Mosteller, who is an economist who collaborated with Mosteller, and a grandson, Hobart Reynolds. A memorial service will be held later this year, most likely at Harvard.
Copyright, 2007, President and Fellows of Harvard College
