University of Michigan department of biostatistics

Abstract

This article traces the history of biostatistics research and training at the University of Michigan which had beginnings in the Medical School and in the Department of Mathematics. With the creation of the School of Public Health and the Survey Research Center (which later led to the formation of the Institute for Social Research), Polio Salk Vaccine Trial, Dewey-Truman pre-election poll, creation of the Annals of Mathematical Statistics, visits by R. A. Fisher and Jerzy Neyman in the late 1930s, etc made Michigan a powerhouse for applied and theoretical research. The Department of Public Health Statistics was formed in 1949 though it existed as a separate unit within Epidemiology since the founding of the School of Public Health in 1941. The Department of Public Health Statistics was renamed as the Department of Biostatistics in 1960. The Department of Statistics was formed in 1969.