James Thompson
James Thompson, Noah Harding Emeritus Professor of Statistics and statistician at Rice before there was a statistics department, died December 4 at age 79.
Thompson taught statistics at Indiana University and Vanderbilt before joining Rice University in 1970. He retired just last year, after 46 years as a member of the faculty. In 1987, statistics moved from under the mathematics science department to the school of social sciences and became a separate department with Thompson as the founding chair. The department moved to the George R. Brown School of Engineering in 1990.
“Jim taught me skepticism,” said John Dobelman, who Thompson advised in 2004 while he was earning his doctorate and is now professor in the practice of statistics. “He was brutally honest. He often stepped in and, besides providing the technical and academic guidance I needed, provided family and mentorship.”
Thompson was a fellow of the American Statistical Association, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and International Statistical Institute. He was the recipient of the Army’s Wilks Medal and the ASA’s Don Owen Award for his work in quality control.
He directed 17 doctoral students and authored or co-authored 14 books, including Models for Investors in Real World Markets and Empirical Model Building: Data, Models, and Reality.
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