Fisher, Sir R A

Fisher, Sir R(onald) A(ylmer)

(born Feb. 17, 1890, East Finchley, Middlesex, Eng.—died July 29, 1962, Adelaide, S.Aus., Austl.) British statistician and geneticist. As statistician for an agricultural research institute, he investigated the linkage of genes for different traits. To avoid unintentional bias in selection of materials used in experiments, he introduced the principle of randomization. It states that before an experimental effect can be attributed to a given cause or treatment, the experiment must be repeated on control units of the material and that all material used in experiments must be selected at random from the whole population it intends to represent. He also developed the concept of the analysis of variance, a statistical procedure used to design experiments that answer several questions at once.