Howard Wainer
Howard Wainer | |
---|---|
Born | Howard Charles Goldhaber October 26, 1943 New York City, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Princeton University Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute |
Known for | Unit-weighted regression |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Statistics |
Institutions | University of Pennsylvania University of Chicago |
Doctoral advisor | Harold Gulliksen |
Doctoral students | David Thissen |
Howard Charles Wainer (born October 26, 1943)
Biography
Early life
Howard Wainer was born Howard Charles Goldhaber in
Education
Early on Wainer showed an aptitude for science and mathematics. In 1960, at the end of his junior year in high school, he was accepted into a National Science Foundation honors program at Columbia University. He spent two hours traveling on subway and bus each way to and from Columbia, learning about Markov chains and number theory in the morning and working on the IBM 650 computer in the afternoon.[1]
Wainer's experiences at Columbia motivated him to continue his studies along similar lines. He matriculated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1961 to study mathematics. It was at R.P.I. that Wainer first encountered psychometrics. There, Professor George Boguslavsky was so impressed with his abilities and enthusiasm that he recommended Wainer for a Psychometric Fellowship at Princeton University under Harold Gulliksen.[2] Wainer received his B.S. from R.P.I. in mathematics in 1965 and a Ph.D. from Princeton in psychometrics in 1968.[3]
Career
Howard Wainer began his teaching career at
Awards and honors
Howard Wainer is the recipient of numerous awards and honors: He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Educational Research Association. He was given a Career Achievement Award for Contributions to Educational Measurement by the National Council on Measurement in Education in 2007, the Samuel J. Messick Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions from Division 5 of the American Psychological Association in 2009, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Psychometric Society in 2013. He also received the ACT/AERA E. F. Lindquist Award for Outstanding Research in Testing & Measurement in 2015. His work on testlets was recognized when he received the Award for Scientific Contribution to a Field of Educational Measurement from the National Council on Measurement in Education in 2006. His book Graphic Discovery was named by Choice as the “Best Math book of 2005”. He was a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the
Current status
Howard Wainer lives with his wife, Linda Steinberg, in Pennington, New Jersey.
Work
Contributions to statistics
Since 1974 when he published his first article on statistical graphics, an empirical verification of the efficacy of the suspended Rootogram, Howard Wainer has been a tireless advocate for the efficacy of
Wainer’s approach to the study of graphics has always shown a deep respect for the work of those who had preceded him. In 2007 he arranged for the publication of replica volumes of William Playfair's Atlas as well as his Statistical Breviary, the first books on the subject. In them he collaborated with Ian Spence on an extended introduction to Playfair and a biography of him.[11]
Wainer has done extensive work on problems in
Wainer has published more than 450 articles, chapters and books. His latest book Truth or Truthiness[17] explains how to use evidence to debunk baseless claims. Since 1990 Wainer has written the popular column “Visual Revelations” for Chance magazine. Wainer edited the Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics from 2002 through 2004 as well as being an associate editor of a handful of statistical and psychometric journals. He is currently on the Board of Editors of Significance, the new joint publication of the American Statistical Association and the Royal Statistical Society.
He has also served on the front lines of educational practice by working for many years as a consultant for teachers’ unions, with a five-year hiatus when he served on the Princeton Board of Education. He has also served, in many capacities, as a consultant and advisor to government and industry.
Selected publications
- Wainer, Howard (2016). Truth or Truthiness: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction by Learning to Think like a Data Scientist. ISBN 978-1107130579.
- Wainer, Howard (2011). Uneducated Guesses: Using Evidence to Uncover Misguided Education Policies. ISBN 9780691149288.
- — (1993). ISBN 0805809724.
- — (2000). Visual Revelations: Graphical Tales of Fate and Deception From Napoleon Bonaparte To Ross Perot. Psychology Press. ISBN 0805838783.
- — (2000). Computerized Adaptive Testing: A Primer (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0805835113.
- — & Howard Wainer (2012). A Statistical Guide for the Ethically Perplexed. Chapman and Hall. ISBN 978-1439873687.
- — (2013). Medical Illuminations: Using Evidence, Visualization and Statistical Thinking to Improve Healthcare. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199668793.
See References for other publications
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Profiles in Research". Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics. 30 (4): 466. December 21, 2005.
- ^ J. Ed, Behav. Stats., p. 468
- ^ a b J. Ed, Behav. Stats., p. 465
- ^ J. Ed, Behav. Stats., p. 471
- ^ J. Ed, Behav. Stats., p. 472
- ISBN 978-0691152677.
- ISBN 0521855543.
- ^ Wainer, Howard (1997). Visual Revelations: Graphical Tales of Fate and Deception from Napoleon Bonaparte to Ross Perot ((second edition, Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000 ed.). New York: Copernicus Books.
- Semiology of Graphics. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.
- ^ Bertin, Jacques (1981). Graphics and Graphic Information Processing. Elmsford, N. Y.: Walter de Gruyter.
- ^ William Playfair (2007). Howard Wainer; Ian Spence (eds.). The Commercial and Political Atlas, Representing, by means of Stained Copper-Plate Charts, The Progress of the Commerce, Revenues, Expenditure, and Debts of England, during the whole of the Eighteenth Century, and The Statistical Breviary; Shewing on a Principle entirely new, the resources of every state and kingdom in Europe; illustrated with Stained Copper-Plate Charts, representing the physical powers of each distinct nation with ease and perspicuity both. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- ISBN 0805837663.
- ^ Wainer, Howard (1988). Test Validity. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- ^ Computerized Adaptive Testing
- ^ Wainer, Howard (1993). Differential Item Functioning. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- ISBN 978-0521681261.
- ISBN 978-1107130579.