C. Jean Thompson

C. Jean Thompson (born 1940) is a New Zealand statistician who served as president of the New Zealand Statistical Association from 1991 to 1993.[1]

Not to be confused with Jean Helen Thompson.

Because she was a girl, Thompson was prevented from taking any mathematical subjects in high school until sixth form, when she was the top of her school's physics class. At university, she wanted to study statistics, but there was no program in that subject, so she earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics. She worked in the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (New Zealand), in their Applied Mathematics Division. She learned statistics on the job, and used an Elliott 503, the first scientific computer in New Zealand, to perform her analyses.[2]

As president of the NZSA, she took the opportunity of the 1993 Women's Suffrage Centenary Celebration to collect and display material about women in statistics in New Zealand that was later collected into a book, Women with Maths — Making a difference.[1][2]

Thompson's publications with the Applied Mathematics Division concerned topics ranging from earthquakes to horticulture. The Applied Mathematics Division was eliminated in the restructuring of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1992.[1] Later, Thompson came to work for the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, where she became a co-author of several books on childhood education.[3]

References
  1. Roberts, H. S. (1999), "The NZSA (1990–1993)", A History of Statistics in New Zealand (PDF), New Zealand Statistical Association, pp. 245–247
  2. "Jean Thompson", 150 Women in 150 Words, Royal Society of New Zealand
  3. Wylie, Cathy (April 2001), "Competent Children: Findings and Issues from the first 7 years" (PDF), Paper for Ministry of Social Policy seminar, The Long Road to Knowledge: longitudinal research and social policy. See footnote 11, p. 8: "One of the great privileges for me in my involvement in the Competent Children project has been to work with an expert statistician, Jean Thompson."
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