Karl Pearson

Who was Karl Pearson?

Karl Pearson FRS was an influential English mathematician and biometrician. He has been credited with establishing the discipline of mathematical statistics, and contributed significantly to the field of biometrics, meteorology, and theories of Social Darwinism and eugenics. A major proponent of eugenics, Pearson was also a protégé and biographer of Sir Francis Galton.

In 1911 he founded the world's first university statistics department at University College London. A sesquicentenary conference was held in London on 23 March 2007, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth.