On Becoming a Bayesian: Early Correspondences between J Cornfield and LJ Savage

<p>Jerome Cornfield was arguably the leading proponent for the use of Bayesian methods in biostatistics during the 1960s. Prior to 1963, however, Cornfield had no publications in the area of Bayesian statistics. At a time when frequentist methods were the dominant influence on statistical practice, Cornfield went against the mainstream and embraced Bayes. The goal of this paper is (i) to explore how and why this transformation came about and (ii) to provide some sense as to who Cornfield was and the context in which he worked.</p

Two Talks by Samuel W. Greenhouse

The following two papers are written versions of talks given by my father, Samuel W. Greenhouse. The first paper in the series, entitled On Psychiatry, Epidemiology, and Statistics: A View from the 1950's and 60's, was presented in 1999 at the Harvard School of Public Health. The second paper, The Growth and Future of Biostatistics (A View from the 1980's) was the 1982 invited ENAR Presidential address delivered in San Antonio. It is an honor and a privilege to be able to include them as part of this special issue of Statistics in Medicine dedicated to him. Although these talks were not part of the NIH symposium on ``Perspectives on the Biostatistical Sciences: A Symposium in Memory of Samuel W. Greenhouse'' (June 11, 2001) it seems fitting that in the first NIH biostatistics symposium in which my father did not participate, he is still able to contribute to the proceedings. In the introduction that follows, I provide some background and context for these talks.</p