astronomy

John Aitchison

John Aitchison is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Aitchison rather than just read about it. In short: John Aitchison (22 July 1926 – 23 December 2016) was a Scottish statistician known for his pioneering work in the analysis of compositional data. Career John Aitchison studied at the University of Edinburgh after being uncomfortable explaining to his headmaster that he didn’t plan to attend university.

Key takeaways

John Aitchison belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Aitchison to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Aitchison from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Aitchison (22 July 1926 – 23 December 2016) was a Scottish statistician known for his pioneering work in the analysis of compositional data.

Career John Aitchison studied at the University of Edinburgh after being uncomfortable explaining to his headmaster that he didn’t plan to attend university. He graduated in 1947 with an MA in mathematics. After two years wherein he did actuarial work, he also attended Trinity College, Cambridge. He had a scholarship to do so, and graduated in 1951 with a BA focused on statistics. The year after he graduated, he joined the Department of Applied Economics at Cambridge as a statistician. He continued his work at Cambridge until 1956, when he was offered the position of Lecturer of Statistics at the University of Glasgow. During his time at Glasgow, he wrote The Lognormal Distribution, With Special Reference to its Uses in Economics (1957) with J A C Brown (who he met at Cambridge). However, he left Glasgow in 1962, when the University of Liverpool offered him the positions of Senior Lecturer and head of Mathematical Statistics. In 1964, he was promoted to Reader. From 1966 to 1976 he was Titular Professor of Statistics and Mitchell Lecturer in Statistics at the University of Glasgow. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1968. He began writing student level books, Solving Problems in Statistics (Volume 1 in 1968, Volume 2 in 1972) and Choice Against Chance: An Introduction to Statistical Decision Theory (1970). In 1976 he joined the University of Hong Kong as a Chair Professor of Statistics. He resigned from the University of Glasgow the year after and founded the Hong Kong Statistical Society. He was the President of the Society during 1977 to 1979. In 1986 he published the book The Statistical Analysis of Compositional Data, an important resource on the analysis of compositional data. On his retirement from the University of Hong Kong in 1989, he joined the University of Virginia as Professor and Chairman of the Division of Statistics, which he retired from in 1994. After this, he returned to the University of Glasgow as an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Statistics.

Personal life Aitchison was born in East Linton, in 1926, where he grew up with his parents. He lived through World War II, and was expected to undertake national service. Normally, this would happen when someone turned 18, but as he was studying radar techniques he was able to delay it. Instead, in 1947, he undertook actuarial work; his mathematical background allowed him to avoid military work. In 1952, the year after he graduated from Cambridge, he married Muriel Shackleton and they had three children together and six grandchildren. He dedicated one of his books on compositional data to his wife, writing ‘to M, the constant among variables.’ Aitchison died in December 2016 at the age of 90.

Awards During his time at the University of Edinburgh, Aitchison was awarded a Foundations of Analysis medal, and later a Bruce of Grangehill scholarship. In 1981, Aitchison received a Best Paper Award from Mathematical Geology for his paper "A New Approach to Null Correlations of Proportions.” Seven years later, he received the Guy Medal in Silver of the Royal Statistical Society for his paper "The Statistical Analysis of Compositional Data (with Discussion) (Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B, 1982)". In 1993 he was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. In 1995 he received the William Christian Krumbein Medal of the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences for his work on statistical tools which were used within the field.

Books authored The Lognormal Distribution, With Special Reference to its Uses in Economics, Aitchison, J. and Brown, J.A.C. (1957) Solving Problems in Statistics, Volume 1 (1968) Choice Against Chance: An Introduction to Statistical Decision Theory (1970) Solving Problems in Statistics, Volume 2 (1972) Statistical Prediction Analysis, Aitchison, J. and Dunsmore, I.R. (1975) The Statistical Analysis of Compositional Data, Aitchison, J. (1986) Statistical Concepts and Applications in Clinical Medicine, Aitchison, J., Kay J.W., and Lawde, I.J. (2004)

References

External links Photograph of John Aitchison on the Portraits of Statisticians page. William Christian Krumbein Medal (1997)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Aitchison

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Aitchison claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Aitchison before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Aitchison ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Aitchison

In research: John Aitchison appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Aitchison in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Aitchison is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1926 births, 2016 deaths, Academic staff of the University of Hong Kong, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Aitchison outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Aitchison in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Aitchison means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Aitchison out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Aitchison in simple terms?

John Aitchison (22 July 1926 – 23 December 2016) was a Scottish statistician known for his pioneering work in the analysis of compositional data. Career John Aitchison studied at the University of Edinburgh after being uncomfortable explaining to his headmaster that he didn’t plan to attend univers…

Why does John Aitchison matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Aitchison?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Aitchison.