Editing Harold Hotelling (section)

== Statistics ==
Hotelling is known to statisticians because of [[Hotelling's T-squared distribution]] which is a generalization of the [[Student's t-distribution]] in multivariate setting, and its use in statistical [[Statistical hypothesis testing|hypothesis testing]] and confidence regions. He also introduced [[canonical correlation]] analysis.

At the beginning of his statistical career Hotelling came under the influence of [[Ronald Fisher|R.A. Fisher]], whose ''[[Statistical Methods for Research Workers]]'' had "revolutionary importance", according to Hotelling's review. Hotelling was able to maintain professional relations with Fisher, despite the latter's temper tantrums and polemics. Hotelling suggested that Fisher use the English word "[[cumulant]]s" for [[T. N. Thiele|Thiele]]'s Danish "semi-invariants". Fisher's emphasis on the sampling distribution of a statistic was extended by [[Jerzy Neyman]] and [[Egon Pearson]] with greater precision and wider applications, which Hotelling recognized. Hotelling sponsored refugees from European anti-semitism and Nazism, welcoming [[Henry Mann]] and [[Abraham Wald]] to his research group at Columbia. While at Hotelling's group, Wald developed [[sequential analysis]] and [[statistical decision theory]], which Hotelling described as "pragmatism in action".

In the United States, Hotelling is known for his leadership of the statistics profession, in particular for his vision of a statistics department at a university, which convinced many universities to start statistics departments. Hotelling was known for his leadership of departments at [[Columbia University]] and the [[University of North Carolina]].