Karl Pearson is considered the founder of the science of statistics. He believed that a true understanding of human evolution and heredity required mathematical methods for analysis of the data. In developing ways to analyze and represent scientific observations, he laid the groundwork for the development of the field of statistics in the 20th century and its use in medicine, engineering, anthropology, and psychology.

Pearson was born in London, England, on March 27, 1857, to William Pearson, a lawyer, and Fanny Smith. At the age of nine, Karl attended the University College School, but was forced to withdraw at sixteen because of poor health. After a year of private tutoring, he went to Cambridge, where the distinguished King's College mathematician E. J. Routh met with him each day at 7 A.M. to study papers on advanced topics in applied mathematics. In 1875, he was awarded a scholarship to King's College, where...