Collection RF - Ronald Aylmer Fisher

Extent: 1 folder

Letter to Dr E G Jefferys from R A Fisher about statistics and genetics, mentioning chapters of his books on statistics that would be helpful for geneticists. Talks about his latest experiments on Lythrum chromosomes and mice inbreeding. Mentions Mathers, Haldane and de Winton.

Admin History: Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, Sc.D, FRS (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was a British statistician and geneticist. Fisher graduated from Caius College Cambridge in 1912 with a first in mathematics. From 1913-1919 Fisher worked as a statistician in the City of London and taught physics and maths at a sequence of public schools. In 1918 he published "The Correlation Between Relatives on the Supposition of Mendelian Inheritance", in which he introduced the term variance. In 1919, he began working at the Rothamsted Experimental Station where he analysed data from crop experiments since the 1840s, and developed the analysis of variance (ANOVA), publishing 'Studies in Crop Variation' in 1921. There he developed the analysis of variance as well as a new approach to experimental design. His principles of randomisation, replication and blocking were presented in Statistical Methods for Research Workers (1925), The Arrangement of Field Experiments (1926) and more fully in The Design of Experiments (1935). 'Statistical Methods for Research Workers' was one of the 20th century's most influential books on statistical methods. Fisher’s genetical research at Rothamsted concentrated on evolution, on integrating Mendelian theory with Darwin’s theory of natural selection. His first major theoretical paper was "On the Dominance Ratio" (1922). He collaborated with E. B. Ford on the analysis of selection in wild populations. His ideas on evolution were brought together in "Genetical Theory of Natural Selection" (1930). In 1933, Fisher became the head of the Department of Eugenics at University College London. In 1943 he returned to Cambridge as professor and head of the Department of Genetics. His 'Theory of Inbreeding' provided a theoretical analysis of the mouse experiments he had been conducting since his London days. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1929 (certificate of election), awarded its Royal Medal in 1938, Darwin Medal in 1948 and Copley Medal in 1955; he was knighted in 1952.