William Sealy Gosset,

the brewer who

revolutionized Statistics
FABIÁN ANDRÉS URBINA FORERO
William Sealy Gosset was born on June 3, 1876 in
Canterbury. After attending school, he enrolled at New
College, Oxford University, to pursue studies in natural
sciences and mathematics. Upon graduation, he begins his
work as a chemist at the famous Arthur Guinness Brewery in
Dublin. His occupation was to improve beer, through
experiments and developing statistical measures. Gosset was
self-taught, although during 1906 and 1907 he studied in the
laboratory of one of the fathers of modern Statistics, Karl
Pearson, with whom he always maintained an excellent
relationship.
 Pearson assists him in the mathematical part of Gosset's early
articles, without yet appreciating their importance. Gosset was
experimenting with small samples, and not with a huge number of
them, as was done then (Pearson in particular). It is in 1908 when
Gosset publishes an article today considered seminal, The probable
error of a mean.
In 1935, Gosset moved to London to take over Guinness' second factory,
dying of a heart attack on October 16, 1937.
 SOME ANECDOTES

In 1934 he had a car accident; apparently "he collided with a lamppost on a

straight road, by looking down and placing some things that he was carrying."
He took advantage of the three months in bed to dedicate himself entirely to the
study and research of Statistics.