Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale, OM (12 May 1820–13 August 1910), who came to be known as The Lady with the Lamp, was the pioneer of modern nursing. Each year, the International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birth anniversary.

Mathematician & statistician

Nightingale had exhibited a gift for mathematics from an early age, and excelled in the subject under the tutorship of her father. She had a special interest in statistics, a field in which her father was an expert, and was a pioneer in the nascent field of epidemiology. Florence made extensive use of statistical analysis in the compilation, analysis and presentation of statistics on medical care and public health.

Related Topics:
Mathematics - Epidemiology - Statistical analysis - Public health

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In her later life, she made a comprehensive statistical study of sanitation in Indian rural life and was the leading figure in the introduction of improved medical care and public health service in India. See Florence Nightingale, the passionate statistician and Biography of Nightingale at MacTutor History of Mathematics.

Related Topics:
Sanitation - Indian

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She invented a diagram she called the coxcomb or polar area chart—similar to today's pie chart—to depict changing patient outcomes in the military field hospital she managed. She made extensive use of the coxcomb to present reports on the nature and magnitude of the conditions of medical care in the Crimean War to Members of Parliament and civil servants who would have been unlikely to read or understand traditional statistical reports. As such, she was a pioneer in the visual presentation of information, now pioneered by Edward Tufte, and has earned high respect in the field of information ecology. See Polar area chart, or coxcomb, diagram.

Related Topics:
Pie chart - Members of Parliament - Edward Tufte - Information ecology

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In 1858, Florence Nightingale was elected the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society and she later became an honorary member of the American Statistical Association.

Related Topics:
1858 - Royal Statistical Society - American Statistical Association

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