ISSUE NO. 7 FALL 2009
C O L L E G E
O F
S C I E N C E
M A G A Z I N E
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STATISTICIAN BLAZES TRAILS, PROVIDES
OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
By Albert Raboteau
Jean Dickinson Gibbons has made the largest ever pledge to the Department of Statistics, which will name its graduate program for her when the $6
million bequest is realized.
Gibbons, a retired professor from the University of Alabama who now lives
in Florida, earned her Ph.D. in statistics from Virginia Tech in 1962. She says
she made the gift as an effort to enable the university to recruit the nation’s
best doctoral candidates in her field, and to help the United States remain the
global leader in the discipline.
“Statistics is my love,” Gibbons said. “It’s my vocation, as well as my avocation.
I was so delighted when I discovered statistics … and I think that it is a field
that will always be of utmost importance.”
The gift — which ultimately will come from the estate of Gibbons and her
husband, John Fielden — will establish a fellowship program for statistics
Ph.D. candidates who are U.S. citizens and have demonstrated outstanding
academic achievement.
Gibbons Fellows will be able to have up to $100,000 of non-tuition academic and living expenses reimbursed over a three-year period. This will allow them to undertake research, attend conferences, or purchase materials
related to their education that they might not otherwise be able to afford.
Tuition funding will come from other sources. The department will be able to
offer six Gibbons Fellowships at a time, a valuable asset in what can be fierce
competition for the best students in the country.
Jean Dickinson Gibbons with husband John Fielden.
“This gift basically will allow us to compete on a national level with universities like Stanford, Harvard, N.C. State, Iowa State, and Texas A&M for the top
American students in statistics,” said Department Chair Eric Smith.
She has published 10 scholarly books in statistics. Her first, entitled Nonparametric Statistical Inference, was published in 1970 and will soon be released
in its fifth edition. Since her retirement in 1995, she has also co-authored two
books with her husband.
Gibbons and Fielden already have given funds to establish the Jean Dickinson Gibbons Statistics Award, which is providing a $5,000 grant to a different
candidate each year for the next six years. Mark Seiss (mathematics ’03, M.S.
‘05) is the first recipient.
One book is on writing and is called Throw Me the Bottom Line – I’m Drowning in E-Mail. The other, a novel called Two Lives, One Love, is based on their
personal story and was recently given the 2008 President’s Award by the
Florida Publishers Association for best adult fiction.
Seiss, an Alpha, N.J., native said, “It’s a very generous gift.” The support has
created several opportunities for him, including buying a more powerful
computer for research and attending the annual Joint Statistical Meetings of
the American Statistical Association.
In addition to teaching and research, Gibbons has testified about statistical
evidence before congressional committees and served as a consultant and an
expert witness in multiple legal cases involving statistics.
Gibbons had a very active career and was elec ѕ