Women Scientists

Florence Nightingale 1820-1910

At a glance:

Lady with the lamp and a noted statistician pioneering visual presentations of statistics and was the first female memer of the Royal Statistical Society

Named after the city of her birth, Florence Nightingale committed herself to nursing from her teens. She was a campaigner for health improvements in workhouse infirmaries and is most famous for her work during the Crimean War, believing that more deaths occurred because of the poor living conditions of the troops than from battle. From an early age, she was a skilled mathematician with a special interest in statistics. Statistical analysis was key to her advocacy, and she pioneered the use of visual presentations to simplify traditional statistical reports for important stakeholders such as politicians and army chiefs. She used 'coxcombs', compilations of pie charts to illustrate, for instance, seasonal mortality. She was the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society and left money in her will for a Chair of Applied Statistics at Oxford University.
Florence Nightingale

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