Robin Plackett
Robin L. Plackett (3 September 1920 – 23 June 2009) was a statistician best known for his contributions to the history of statistics and to experimental design, most notably the Plackett–Burman designs. Early life and education Plackett attended Liverpool Collegiate School from 1932 to 1939. He then attended Clare College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1942. Early career During World War II, Plackett was requested to work for the Ministry of Supply, in SR17 which was a statistical branch. He began to develop a methodology for applying statistical knowledge, and would pass it down to new recruits. First scientific paper In 1946, he would publish his first paper which was written jointly with Peter Burman in an journal called Biometrika. The paper, titled "The design of optimum multifactorial experiments", introduced Plackett–Burman experimental designs. Academic career In 1947, he became a lecturer at Liverpool University. He would also publish research on the history of statistics. Then, in 1962, he took a short post for the Professor of Statistics at King's College, Durham before the college merged with Newcastle University in 1963. He was the first professor of statistics at Newcastle University and held the post until his retirement in 1983. In