Leland Wilkinson

Leland Wilkinson is a prominent figure in the field of statistics and computer science, known for his work on data visualization and statistical graphics. He has made significant contributions to the development of SYSTAT, a statistical software package, and has collaborated with numerous researchers, including John Tukey and Edward Tufte. Wilkinson's work has been influenced by William Cleveland and Robert McGill, and he has also been associated with institutions such as Harvard University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research has been published in various journals, including the Journal of the American Statistical Association and the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics.

● Early Life and Education

Leland Wilkinson was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in a family of University of Chicago alumni. He developed an interest in mathematics and computer science at an early age, inspired by the work of Alan Turing and John von Neumann. Wilkinson pursued his undergraduate degree at Purdue University, where he studied statistics and mathematics under the guidance of George Box and Norman Draper. He later earned his graduate degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, working with John Tukey and David Hoaglin on projects related to exploratory data analysis and statistical computing.

● Career

Wilkinson began his career as a statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics, working on projects related to public health and epidemiology with researchers such as Abraham Lilienfeld and Brian MacMahon. He later joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he collaborated with Heinz Kohler and Rudolf Kalman on research projects in time series analysis and signal processing. Wilkinson has also held positions at SYSTAT Inc., SPSS Inc., and Tableau Software, working with Chris Stolte and Christian Chabot to develop innovative data visualization tools.

● Research and Contributions

Wilkinson's research has focused on the development of statistical graphics and data visualization techniques, with applications in public health, economics, and social sciences. He has worked with researchers such as Hans Rosling and Gapminder Foundation to create interactive data visualization tools, and has collaborated with Edward Tufte and Nathan Yau on projects related to information visualization and visual analytics. Wilkinson has also made significant contributions to the development of R programming language and ggplot2, working with Hadley Wickham and Winston Chang to create innovative data visualization packages.

● Awards and Honors

Wilkinson has received numerous awards and honors for his contributions to statistics and computer science, including the American Statistical Association's COPSS Presidents' Award and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences' Jerome Sacks Award. He has also been recognized by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the Association for Computing Machinery for his work on statistical graphics and data visualization. Wilkinson has been elected as a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and has served on the editorial boards of journals such as the Journal of the American Statistical Association and the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics.

● Selected Works

Wilkinson has published numerous papers and books on statistics and computer science, including The Grammar of Graphics and Visualizing Data. He has also contributed to the development of SYSTAT and ggplot2, and has worked with researchers such as John Fox and Sanford Weisberg to create innovative statistical software packages. Wilkinson's work has been cited by researchers such as Andrew Gelman and Donald Rubin, and has been influential in the development of data science and machine learning at institutions such as Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Category:American statisticians