戈塞特William Sealy Gosset

戈塞特是Agnes 戈塞特 Vidal和Frederic 戈塞特上校的长子，后者来自牛津郡的沃特灵顿。戈塞特在温切斯特接受教育，在那里他最喜欢的爱好是射击，之后进入牛津大学新学院学习化学和数学。在那里期间，他师从乔治·比德尔·艾里。他在这两个学科中都获得了一等学位，于1897年获得数学学位，两年后获得化学学位。

1899年，戈塞特在Arthur Guinness Son and Company获得了一份化学师的工作。在都柏林的Guinness酿酒厂工作期间，他在统计学方面做了重要的工作。1905年，他联系了卡尔·皮尔逊，并安排在1906-07学年前往伦敦，在卡尔·皮尔逊的实验室——大学学院的弗朗西斯·高尔顿优生学实验室——学习。此时，他研究了二项分布的西莫恩·德尼·泊松极限以及均值、标准差和相关系数的抽样分布。后来，他就这一年期间在卡尔·皮尔逊实验室所做的工作发表了三篇重要论文。

许多人对“Student”这个名字很熟悉，但对戈塞特这个名字却不熟悉。事实上，戈塞特是以“Student”为笔名写作的，这解释了为什么他的名字可能不如他在统计学中的重要成果那样广为人知。他发明了$t$检验，用于酿酒质量控制中的小样本处理。戈塞特通过数学与随机数的经验工作相结合，发现了$t$分布的形式，这是蒙特卡洛方法的早期应用。

在[8]中，柯蒂斯·麦克马伦写道：-

在统计学界的许多人看来，“Student”被视为吉尼斯啤酒厂的统计顾问，而在其他人眼中，他似乎是一位将业余时间投入统计学的酿酒师。……尽管这两种看法都有一定道理，但它们都错过了核心要点，即他的统计研究与他所从事的实际问题之间的密切联系。……“Student”在啤酒厂做了大量常规工作以及统计工作，此外还从事咨询统计工作和准备他各种已发表的论文。

从1922年起，他在啤酒厂获得了一名统计助理，并慢慢建立了一个小型统计部门，一直管理到1934年。

戈塞特当然不是孤立工作的。他与大量统计学家通信，并且经常去英格兰沃特灵顿看望他的父亲，在这些场合他会访问伦敦大学学院和洛桑农业实验站。他会与罗纳德·费希尔、耶日·奈曼和卡尔·皮尔逊讨论统计问题。

1934年，戈塞特遭遇了一场车祸，[8]中对此有所描述：-

……他在一条笔直的路上撞上了路灯柱，因为低头调整他携带的一些东西……

事实上，事故后卧床三个月期间，他得以专注于统计学。一年后他才康复，但在余生最后几年里一直跛行。

1935年底，戈塞特离开爱尔兰，去负责伦敦的新吉尼斯酿酒厂。尽管这项事业涉及艰苦的工作，他仍继续发表统计学论文。

麦克马伦是位私人朋友，在[8]中这样描述戈塞特：-

……他非常和善宽容，毫无恶意。他很少谈及个人事务，但一旦谈及，他的见解很值得一听，且毫不肤浅。

在2中，他被描述如下：-

所有与他共事的人都非常爱戴他，一个精选的专业与私人朋友圈子也非常爱戴他，他们尊崇他为最谦逊、温和、勇敢的人之一，不落俗套，却在一切思想和行为方式上极为宽容。他还热爱帆船和钓鱼，并发明了1936年3月28日《Field》杂志所描述的钓鱼者自控船。

William Gosset was the eldest son of Agnes Sealy Vidal and Colonel Frederic Gosset who came from Watlington in Oxfordshire. William was educated at Winchester, where his favourite hobby was shooting, then entered New College Oxford where he studied chemistry and mathematics. While there he studied under Airy. He obtained a First Class degree in both subjects, being awarded his mathematics degree in 1897 and his chemistry degree two years later.

Gosset obtained a post as a chemist with Arthur Guinness Son and Company in 1899. Working in the Guinness brewery in Dublin he did important work on statistics. In 1905 he contacted Karl Pearson and arranged to go to London to study at Pearson's laboratory, the Galton Eugenics Laboratory, at University College in session 1906-07. At this time he worked on the Poisson limit to the binomial and the sampling distribution of the mean, standard deviation, and correlation coefficient. He later published three important papers on the work he had undertaken during this year working in Pearson's laboratory.

Many people are familiar with the name "Student" but not with the name Gosset. In fact Gosset wrote under the name "Student" which explains why his name may be less well known than his important results in statistics. He invented the $t$-test to handle small samples for quality control in brewing. Gosset discovered the form of the $t$ distribution by a combination of mathematical and empirical work with random numbers, an early application of the Monte-Carlo method.

Writing in [8], McMullen says:-

To many in the statistical world "Student" was regarded as a statistical advisor to Guinness's brewery, to others he appeared to be a brewer devoting his spare time to statistics. ... though there is some truth in both these ideas they miss the central point, which was the intimate connection between his statistical research and the practical problems on which he was engaged. ... "Student" did a very large quantity of ordinary routine as well as his statistical work in the brewery, and all that in addition to consultative statistical work and to preparing his various published papers.

From 1922 he acquired a statistical assistant at the brewery, and he slowly built up a small statistics department which he ran until 1934.

Gosset certainly did not work in isolation. He corresponded with a large number of statisticians and he often visited his father in Watlington in England and on these occasions he would visit University College, London, and the Rothamsted Agricultural Experiment Station. He would discuss statistical problems with Fisher, Neyman and Pearson.

In 1934 Gosset had a motor accident, described in [8]:-

...he ran into a lamp-post on a straight road, through looking down to adjust some stuff he was carrying...

In fact when confined to bed for three months after the accident he was able to concentrate on statistics. It was a year before he was recovered but he retained a limp for the remaining few years of his life.

At the end of 1935 Gosset left Ireland to take charge of the new Guinness brewery in London. Despite the hard work involved in this venture he continued to publish statistics papers.

McMullen, who was a personal friend, describes Gosset in [8] as follows:-

... he was very kindly and tolerant and absolutely devoid of malice. He rarely spoke about personal matters but when he did his opinion was well worth listening to and not in the least superficial.

He is described in [2] as follows:-

He was much beloved by all those with whom he worked and by a select circle of professional and personal friends, who revered him as one of the most modest, gentle, and brave of men, unconventional, yet abundantly tolerant in all his thoughts and ways. Also he loved sailing and fishing, and invented the angler's self-controlled craft described in the 'Field' of March 28, 1936.