1900-1978

American mathematician who was the first woman elected into the International Statistical Institute. In 1956 she was elected President of the American Statistical Association and in 1975 was elected into the National Academy of Sciences. Born in Dayton, Iowa, Cox took an unusual path for women in those times: she earned a master's degree in statistics at Iowa State College. She continued her graduate work in California at the University of California at Berkeley and returned to her alma mater, where she soon was appointed assistant professor of statistics. Cox was later appointed Director of Statistics at the Research Triangle Institute in Durham, North Carolina, where she remained until her retirement in 1964.