| Authorised form of name | Fisher; Sir; Ronald Aylmer (1890 - 1962); statistician and geneticist |
| Dates | 1890 - 1962 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | East Finchley, London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 17 February 1890 |
| Place of death | Adelaide, Australia, Oceania |
| Date of death | 29/07/1962 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Burial:
St Peter's Cathedral, Adelaide, Australia, Oceania |
| Occupation | Statistician; geneticist; teacher |
| Research field | Statistics |
| Biometry |
| Eugenics |
| Evolution |
| Genetics |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 02/05/1929 |
| Age at election | 39 |
| RSActivity | Medals and prizes:
Royal Medal 1938; Darwin Medal 1948; Copley Medal 1955
Lectures:
Croonian 1953, gave lecture on population genetics |
| Relationships | Married (Ruth) Eileen Guinness, 1917, daughter of Dr. Henry Gratton Guiness (1861-1915), physician and missionary; eight children born 1919-1938; separated 1943. A daughter, Joan Fisher Box, wrote a biography of her father: she married the statistician George E. P. Box |
| PublishedWorks | 'The correlation between relatives on the supposition of Mendelian Inheritance', 1918; 'Statistical methods for research workers ', 1925; 'The genetical theory of natural selection', 1930; 'The design of experiments', 1935; 'The wave of advance of advantageous genes', 1937; 'The theory of inbreeding', 1949; 'Gene frequencies in a cline determined by selection and diffusion', 1950; 'Statistical methods and scientific inference ', 1956 |
| OtherInfo | Eugenics is a set of beliefs and practices that aim to 'improve' the physiological qualities of a human population, usually along lines of physical and mental ability. These practices have been characterised as sometimes embracing 'positive' measures, such as encouraging individuals deemed particularly fit to reproduce; and/or 'negative' measures, such as marriage prohibitions and voluntary or forced sterilization of people deemed unfit. The history of eugenics (a term coined by Francis Galton) began in the mid 19th and early 20th centuries. It was generally linked to negative views of race and class. A popular eugenics movement emerged in the United Kingdom, tied in with the thinking of physiological anthropologists, interpretations of Darwinism and natural selection, and the rise of statistical modeling and quantative analysis in science. Fisher was associated with the Eugenics Society; of those who were involved, there were many different approaches and Fisher's relationships with others, such as Karl Pearson, were subject to public disagreements and some animosity. |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DSB; Wikipedia
Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1963 vol 9 pp 91-129, plate, by F Yates and K Mather
References:
David C Watt, 'Lionel Penrose, FRS (1898-1972) and Eugenics: Part One' in NR 1998 vol 52 pp 137-151
Sahotra Sarkar, 'J B S Haldane and R A Fisher's Draft Life of Karl Pearson' in NR 1995 vol 49 pp 119-124
A. W. F. Edwards, 'R. A. Fisher on Karl Pearson' in NR 1994 vol 48 pp 97-106, plate
Bernard Norton and E. S. Pearson, 'A Note on the Background to, and Refereeing of, R A Fisher's 1918 Paper "On the Correlation Between Relatives on the Supposition of Mendelian Inheritance"' in NR 1976-7 vol 31 pp 151-162
Sir Gavin de Beer, 'Mendel, Darwin, and Fisher (1865-1965)' in NR 1964 vol 19 pp 192-226
'The Race Concept: Results of an Inquiry', UNESCO, 1952
J. F. Box, 'R. A. Fisher: the life of a scientist' (1978)
Walter Bodmer, R. A. Bailey, Brian Charlesworth, Adam Eyre-Walker, Veron Farewell, Andrew Mead and Stephen Senn, 'The outstanding scientist, R. A. Fisher: his views on eugenics and race', Heredity 126, pp.565-576 (2021) |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/41900609 |
| Code | NA7969 |
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1929/04 | Fisher, Sir Ronald Aylmer: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| CMB/278/10 | Note on papers passed for publication | 1945 |
| RR/35/75 | Referee's report by George Udny Yule, on a paper 'Triplet children in Great Britain and Ireland' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | 31 October 1927 |
| RR/47/132 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'A modified method of counting particles' by L H C Tippett | April 1932 |
| RR/47/53 | Referee's report by George Udny Yule, on a paper 'On the evidence against the chemical induction of melanism in lepidoptera' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | 28 December 1932 |
| RR/47/52 | Referee's report by Guy Anstruther Knox Marshall, on a paper 'On the evidence against the chemical induction of melanism in lepidoptera' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | December 1932 |
| RR/50/84 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'The relative aetiological importance of birth order and maternal age in [mongolism]' by Lionel Sharples Penrose | May 1934 |
| RR/47/51 | Referee's report by Edmund Taylor Whittaker, on a paper 'The concepts of inverse probability and fiducial probability referring to unknown parameters' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | November 1932 |
| RR/47/80 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'Partial inbreeding in mendelian populations, with special reference to human cousin marriage' by John Burdon Sanderson Haldane and P Moshinksky | September 1932 |
| RR/53/126 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'On the numerical distribution of micro-organisms in the atmosphere' by A S Horne | [November 1934] |
| NLB/66/310 | Copy letter from William Bate Hardy, Secretary of the Royal Society; to [Ronald Alymer] Fisher Esq., Rothamsted Experimental Station. | 7 April 1924 |
| RR/53/75 | Referee's report by Reginald Crundall Punnett, on a paper 'Dominance in poultry' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | [December 1934] |
| RR/70/216 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'The quantitative investigation of the vertebrate brain and the applicability of allometric formulae to its study' by D Sholl | 1947 |
| RR/54/11 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'A contribution to the mathematical theory of epidemics. Part IV' by William Ogilvy Kermack and A G McKendrick | August 1935 |
| NLB/65/268 | Copy letter from William Bate Hardy, Secretary of the Royal Society; to [Frederick Campion] Seward | 1 October 1923 |
| RR/61/35 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'Properties of sufficiency and statistical tests' by Maurice Stevenson Bartlett | January 1937 |
| RR/59/75 | Referee's report by John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, on a paper 'The relation between variability and abundance shown by the measurements of the eggs of British nesting birds' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | [August 1936] |
| RR/72/113 | Referee's report by Frank Yates, on a paper 'A class of enumerations of importance in genetics' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | 1949 |
| RR/71/291 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'Systematic sampling' by Frank Yates | 1948 |
| RR/72/205 | Letter from Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'The form-transformation of the abdomen of the female pea-crab, Pinnotheres pisum Leach' by A E Needham to D C Martin, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society | 31 October 1949 |
| RR/72/230 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'Large elastic deformations of isotropic materials VI. Further results in the theory of torsion, shear and flexure' by R S Rivlin | 1949 |
| NLB/65/818 | Copy letter from William Bate Hardy, Secretary of the Royal Society; to Sir [Edward] John Russell, FRS | 9 January 1924 |
| RR/45/74 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'The intellectual resemblance of twins' by Louis Herrman and Lancelot Thomas Hogben | [September 1932] |
| RR/48/93 | Referee's report by Edmund Taylor Whittaker, on a paper 'Two new properties of mathematical likelihood' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | [January 1934] |
| RR/51/134 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'On the independence of sums of squares in the analysis of variance' by S S Wilks | [December 1933] |
| RR/48/94 | Referee's report by Edmund Taylor Whittaker, on a paper 'Probability likelihood and quantity of information in the logic of uncertain inference' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | [January 1934] |
| RR/71/127 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'Studies on the Genetic and Antigenic Basis of Tumour Transplantation. Linkage between a Histocompatibility Gene and 'Fused' in Mice' by Peter Alfed Gorer, S Lyman and G D Snell | [1948] |
| NLB/66/61 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to [Albert Charles] Seward, FRS | 15 February 1924 |
| NLB/65/828 | Copy letter from William Bate Hardy, Secretary of the Royal Society; to B. A. Keen Esq.; Rothamsted Experimental Station | 12 January 1924 |
| NLB/69/150 | Copy letter from James Hopwood Jeans, Secretary of the Royal Society; to [Ronald Aylmer] Fisher Esq., Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden | 21 January 1926 |
| NLB/72/173 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Dr [Ronald Aylmer] Fisher, FRS | 7 May 1929 |
| NLB/72/808 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary and Librarian of the Royal Society; to Dr [Ronald Aylmer] Fisher, FRS | 3 May 1930 |
| IM/GA/WS/4551 | Fisher, Sir Ronald Aylmer | nd |
| IM/GA/WS/1174 | Fisher, Sir Ronald Aylmer | 1946 |
| RR/28/131 | Referee's report by William Napier Shaw, on a paper 'The influence of rainfall on the yield of wheat at Rothamsted' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | 7 January 1924 |
| RR/62/84 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'Factors affecting the amount of infection obtained by aphis transmission of the virus Hy. III' by Marion A Watson | [May 1936] |
| RR/53/74 | Referee's report by John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, on a paper 'Dominance in poultry' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | [December 1934] |
| RR/64/10 | Referee's report by Reginald Crundall Punnett, on a paper 'Dominance in poultry: feathered feet, rose comb, internal pigment and pile' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | [October 1937] |
| RR/46/4 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'Contributions to the mathematical theory of epidemics. II. —The problem of endemicity' by William Ogilvy Kermack and A G McKendrick | [May 1932] |
| RR/51/132 | Second referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'On the independence of sums of squares in the analysis of variance' by S S Wilks | [March 1934] |
| RR/72/156 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'The stability of D-arabinose adaption of Bact. lactis aerogenes' by Cyril Norman Hinshelwood and S Jackson | 1949 |
| RR/59/77 | Second referee's report by John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, on a paper 'The relation between variability and abundance shown by the measurements of the eggs of British nesting birds' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | [December 1936] |
| RR/56/56 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'Sufficient statistics and uniformly most powerful tests of statistical hypotheses' by J Neyman and Egon Sharpe Pearson | [December 1935] |
| RR/62/92 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'The influence of moonlight on the activity of certain nocturnal insects, particularly of the family Noctuidae, as indicated by a light trap' by Carrington Bonsor Williams | [March 1936] |
| RR/28/130 | Referee's report by William Lawrence Balls, on a paper 'The influence of rainfall on the yield of wheat at Rothamsted' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | [October 1923] |
| RR/45/98 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'The correlation of relatives on the supposition of sex-linked transmission' by Lancelot Thomas Hogben | [August 1932] |
| RR/46/43 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'On the problem of the most efficient tests of statistical hypotheses' by Jerzy Neyman and Egon Sharpe Pearson | [September 1932] |
| RR/48/26 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'The detection of linkage in human families. I.–Both heterozygous genotypes indeterminate' by Lancelot Thomas Hogben | [October 1933] |
| RR/50/43 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'An electrical calculating machine' by R R M Mallock | 11 April 1933 |
| RR/55/46 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'A study by statistical methods of the distribution of species in grassland associations' by Geoffrey Emett Blackman | 20 May 1935 |
| RR/59/76 | Referee's report by George Udny Yule, on a paper 'The relation between variability and abundance shown by the measurements of the eggs of British nesting birds' by Ronald Aylmer Fisher | 21 November 1936 |
| RR/45/62 | Referee's report by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, on a paper 'A statistical study of the distribution of species in grassland associations' by Geoffrey Emett Blackman | 22 February 1932 |