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Karl Pearson

English mathematician, biometrician, and eugenicist (1857-1936) · United Kingdom · On the map · Academics · Died at 79

Karl Pearson was an English biostatistician and mathematician. He has been credited with establishing the discipline of mathematical statistics. He founded the world's first university statistics department at University College London in 1911, and contributed significantly to the field of biometrics.

Karl Pearson is read about 249 times a day, in 51 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 6 November 2026

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A life in dates

1936Died27 April 19361912Weldon Memorial PrizeAward1903Huxley Memorial MedalAward1898Darwin MedalAward1896Fellow of the Royal SocietyAward1857Born27 March 1857

People around Karl

Also in Deutsch

Awards

Weldon Memorial Prize1912
Huxley Memorial Medal1903
Darwin Medal1898
Fellow of the Royal Society1896

About this person

Pearson was also a proponent of Social Darwinism and eugenics, and his thought is an example of what is today described as scientific racism. Pearson was a protégé and biographer of Sir Francis Galton. He edited and completed both William Kingdon Clifford's Common Sense of the Exact Sciences (1885) and Isaac Todhunter's History of the Theory of Elasticity, Vol. 1 (1886-1893) and Vol. 2 (1893), following their deaths.

Country
United Kingdom
Category
Academics
Type
Academic
Status
Deceased
Dates
Lived 1857 to 1936 · aged 79