Barbara Falkenbach Ryan facts for kids

Barbara Falkenbach Ryan is an American expert in math, computers, and statistics. She is famous for helping create Minitab, a special computer program for statistics. She also became the president and CEO (which means chief executive officer) of the company that makes Minitab.

Her Early Life and Studies

Barbara Ryan studied mathematics at Cornell University. She earned her highest degree, a Ph.D., in 1968.

After finishing her studies, Dr. Ryan and her husband, Thomas A. Ryan Jr., both started working at Pennsylvania State University. She joined the computer science department there. She also did research on topics like how computers manage their input and output, known as I/O scheduling.

Creating Minitab

In 1972, Thomas Ryan and another teacher, Brian L. Joiner, started working on Minitab. Barbara Ryan was involved as a consultant. By 1974, she officially joined them as one of the main developers of Minitab.

In 1983, the Ryans created a company called Minitab, Inc. This company was made to sell and support their software. In 1988, Barbara Ryan became the president and chief executive officer of Minitab, Inc. Her husband left the company around that time.

Minitab was first used mostly by engineers and for teaching statistics. In the late 1990s, Barbara Ryan decided to focus Minitab more on helping businesses improve their processes. This was part of a method called Six Sigma. This change helped the company grow a lot and made Minitab a leader in its field.

Awards and Recognition

Barbara Ryan has been recognized for her work in statistics. In 1984, she led the Statistical Computing Section of the American Statistical Association.

In 1990, the American Statistical Association named her a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. This is a special honor given to members who have made important contributions to statistics.