Jean Gibbons Fielden

Gibbons was the second woman to earn a doctoral degree in statistics from Virginia Tech. A pioneer for women in statistics, she spent her professional life actively championing the field. 

She was the first chair for the American Statistical Association’s Committee for Women in Statistics. She joined the faculty at the University of Alabama in 1970, where she was the Thomas D. Russell Professor of Applied Statistics and chair of the Applied Statistics Program, until her retirement in 1995. 

She was elected a Fellow of the ASA at age 34 and served four terms on their board of directors. An active writer and researcher, she has published 10 scholarly books in statistics including her first, “Non-Parametric Statistical Inference” which was originally published in 1970 and is currently in its fifth edition. 

Gibbons has testified about statistical evidence before congressional committees and served as a consultant and expert witness in legal cases involving statistics. 

Since her retirement in 1995 she has co-authored two non-academic books with her late husband.