A conversation with Ralph A. Bradley

Ralph A. Bradley was born in Smith Falls, Ontario, Canada on November 28, 1 923, but grew up in the village of Wellington on the shores of Lake Ontario . He graduated from Queen's University in 1944 with an honors degree in mat hematics and physics, was in the Canadian Army, 1944-1945 and returned to Q ueen's to complete an M.A. degree in 1946. In 1946 he entered the then new doctoral program in theoretical statistics at the University of North Carol ina and received the Ph.D. degree in June, 1949. His first academic positio n was at McGill University, 1949-1950, followed by nine years at the Virgin ia Polytechnic Institute, 1950-1958. Bradley moved to Florida State Univers ity in 1959 to found a Department of Statistics there, heading the departme nt until 1978, with the exception of ten months in Egypt in 1966 as a consu ltant to the Ford Foundation and the Institute of Statistical Studies and R esearch of the University of Cairo. He moved to the University of Georgia a s Research Professor of Statistics in 1982. Although he retired in 1992, he continues to participate in activities in statistics there. He has been na med Professor Emeritus at both Florida State and Georgia Universities. Bradley has played a leadership role in the professional societies. He was Editor of Biometrics, 1957-1962, and Vice-President and President of the Ea stern North American Region (1963-1965). He served as Vice-President (1975- 1978) and President (1981) of the American Statistical Association (ASA). H e headed (with Margaret E. Martin) the Coordinating Committee of the ASA Bu ilding and Development Fund (1982-1988) and was a member of the Future Goal s Committee (1980). He has also served on various committees of the Institu te of Mathematical Statistics, been active in the International Statistical Institute, the Gordon Research Conferences, the Southern Regional Committe e on Statistics, and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences. He has served on the editorial boards of Biometrics, the Journal of Statistical C omputing and Simulation, and Communications in Statistics-Theory and Method s and acted as an editorial advisor on the Wiley Series on Probability and Statistics (1954-1998). Bradley has been active in research throughout his career. He has over 110 research papers in such areas as design of experiments, non-parametric stat istics, methodology for sensory evaluations, sequential analysis, multivari ate analysis, probability theory and computing techniques. Most of his pape rs stemmed from his statistical consulting on applied problems, or from the need to develop new theory to solve such problems. Bradley's consulting wi th General Foods on statistical methods in product evaluation was particula rly influential in stimulating his own research and the research of others. Bradley has also been extensively involved with statistical consulting on o rganizational matters, His work in Egypt led to requests for his participat ion in regional conferences and reviews of statistical programs in the Midd le East. He has been instrumental in establishing statistical consulting un its and in obtaining funds to support research and graduate students in the departments where he had leadership roles. Ralph Bradley has received numerous recognitions for his contributions to t he discipline. He was elected Fellow of the American Statistical Associatio n (1957), the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the American Associa tion fbr the Advancement of Science (1963) and became an elected member of the International Statistical Institute (1970). He has received Founders Aw ards from the ASA and the Southern Regional Committee on Statistics, (1992) and the (1994) Paul Minton Service Award of the latter committee. In 1970 Bradley was named the R. O. Lawton Distinguished Professor, Florida State U niversity, an award made to only one faculty member per year and the Univer sity's highest faculty honor.