Cox, Gertrude M.

Gertrude Mary Cox (1900-1978) served as head of the Statistics Department at North Carolina State College (later North Carolina State University) from 1940 to 1949. She played an important role in founding the Research Triangle Institute in 1959 and held the position of Director, Statistics Research Division at the Institute from 1959 until 1964. In 1949 Cox became the first woman elected into the International Statistical Institute. In 1956 she was elected President of the American Statistical Association while in 1975 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Gertrude Mary Cox was born in Dayton, Iowa in 1900. She received a B.S. in Mathematics and an M.S. in statistics, from Iowa State College in 1929 and 1931 respectively, and then enrolled in a doctoral program in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. After two years in California, she was persuaded to return to Iowa to continue her work in statistics. From 1933 to 1940, Cox taught at Iowa State before Leaving for N.C. State College, where she remained until 1960. From 1940 - 1949 she served as head of the Department of Experimental Statistics. In 1949, Cox left this position to administer the North Carolina Institute of Statistics. She is most noted for her role in the 1959 founding of the Research Triangle Institute, where she held the position of Director, Statistics Research Division until 1964. She was also active as a consultant, working with universities in Thailand and Egypt. Cox received numerous awards, including an honorary Doctorate of Science in statistics from Iowa State College in 1958, and membership in the National Academy of Science. In 1949 she became the first woman elected into the International Statistical Institute. In 1956 she was elected President of the American Statistical Association. She was also named a Fellow in the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. She died in 1978.