History of Statistics at WVU

Welcome to the Department of Statistics at WVU! A Minor in Statistics is available to any undergraduate students and Certificate in Applied Statistics is available to graduate students at WVU. Our aim is for all of our students to be challenged and encouraged in their statistical course work. 

History of the WVU Department of Statistics

Departments of Statistics are now ubiquitous at U.S. research universities, but this development is relatively new. The first Departments of Statistics in the U.S. formed primarily in states with strong ties to agriculture in the 1940s and 1950s. Professor Stanley T. Wearden was one of the five initial faculty members of the Department of Statistics at Kansas State University when it first formed in 1957, and in 1966, Professor Wearden came to WVU, from Kansas State University, hired as Professor of Statistics and Agriculture Experimental Station Statistician.

Professor Wearden would have a long and successful career at WVU including a stint as the Interim Dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences from 1982 to 1983. Initially in 1966, Professor Wearden was tasked with the creation of the Department of Statistics and Computer Science. He made a number of important faculty hires and became the founding chairperson of the Department of Statistics and Computer Science. The Department of Statistics and Computer Science initially offered B.S degrees in Statistics and in Computer Science.

In the 1970s, the department also implemented M.S. degrees in Statistics and in Computer Science. The department continued to grow as both Statistics and Computer Science blossomed in business and industry, scientific research, government and education.

The WVU Department of Statistics and Computer Science was a nearly unique department. Only three departments existed in the United States that combined Computer Science and Statistics into a single department. As such, Statistical Computation, among other areas, thrived at WVU.

Through an administrative reorganization, the Computer Science segment of the department was combined with the Electrical Engineering Department. The remains of Department of Statistics and Computer Science then became the Department of Statistics in 1997.

Statistics faculty at WVU have subsequently been successful at partnering on funded research with faculty in the areas of agriculture, engineering sciences, forensic sciences, geography, health sciences, natural resources, and physics. Statistics currently offers an undergraduate minor and a graduate certificate.