Joseph Hilbe facts for kids

Joseph Michael Hilbe (born December 30, 1944 – died March 12, 2017) was an American statistician and philosopher. He was the first president of the International Astrostatistics Association(IAA). He also wrote many books about statistical modeling.

Hilbe was an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association. He was also a member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI). He even started the ISI astrostatistics committee in 2009. Hilbe was also a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and a member of the American Astronomical Society.

Joseph Hilbe also made important contributions to how we understand and use data. He helped develop methods like "negative binomial regression" and "logistic regression." These are ways to analyze different types of data, especially when counting things or predicting outcomes.

Some of his most important books include Negative Binomial Regression and Modeling Count Data. Modeling Count Data won an award in 2015 for being one of the best math books published that year. He also edited several book series about statistics and how to use data to make predictions.

Beyond his academic work, Hilbe was a talented track & field athlete. He was a two-time national champion. He also coached for the US team and NCAA Division 1, and was an official at the Olympic Games. He led committees for sports statistics as well.

Life and Education

Joseph Hilbe was born in Los Angeles, California. He grew up in Arcadia, California. He went to high school in Portola Valley, California and Paradise, California, graduating in 1962.

He studied at California State University, Chico, and earned a degree in philosophy in 1968. He then studied for his doctorate in philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). There, he worked with famous thinkers like Friedrich Hayek, a Nobel Laureate, and Rudolf Carnap.

Work in Statistics

Hilbe became a professor of philosophy at the University of Hawaii. He retired from there in 1990. During this time, he wrote several books on philosophy and logic.

In 1988, he earned another doctorate, this time in statistics from UCLA. In 1990, he started working for the Health Care Financing Administration. His job was to create tools to study Medicare data.

He also helped start the Stata Technical Bulletin, a publication about statistical software. He created many software commands, including the first program for "negative binomial regression" in 1993. This method is now a standard way to analyze data that involves counts, like how many times something happens. Hilbe is known for making this method popular, especially in health studies.

In 1992, Hilbe became a professor of Statistics at Arizona State University. He also worked as a lead statistician for big companies like Genentech and Hoffman-La Roche. He helped create the Health Policy Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association. He was also an editor for The American Statistician for twelve years.

Astrostatistics and Astronomy

Joseph Hilbe had a strong interest in astronomy and meteorites. In 2006, he was chosen as a Solar System Ambassador for NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

In 2008, he started the Astrostatistics Interest Group within the International Statistical Institute (ISI). This led to the creation of an astrostatistics committee in 2009, with Hilbe as its first leader.

In 2012, the International Astrostatistics Association (IAA) was formed. Hilbe was elected as its founding President. The IAA is the first worldwide group for people who study astrostatistics. Its goal is to help scientists from different fields work together. This includes astrophysicists, statisticians, and computer scientists. They work to better understand and interpret data from space.

Awards and Recognition

In 2009, Hilbe received the Distinguished Alumnus award from California State University, Chico. He was also inducted into the Chico State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007. He is the only person to receive both honors from the university.

He was also inducted into the Paradise High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2011, he joined the Woodside Priory High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Joseph Hilbe was married to Cheryl Swisher and had four children.

Athletics

Known as Joe Hilbe in the sports world, he was a national champion in the pentathlon in 1968 and 1978. He was also ranked globally in running events. Hilbe set a Hawaii state record for javelin in 1976, which is still the recognized record.

From 1979 to 1982, Hilbe was the national chair for AAU girl's Junior Olympic track & field. He was also the head women's track & field coach at the University of Hawaii from 1979 to 1985. He coached successful athletes like Gwen Loud, an NCAA long jump champion, and Gwen Gardner, who made the 1980 U.S. Olympic team.

As a men's assistant coach at the University of Hawaii, he coached Terry Albritton. Albritton broke the shot put world record in 1976. Hilbe also served as a U.S. team coach and manager for several major competitions around the world in the 1980s.

Hilbe helped form the National Track & Field Officials Association in 1977. He was a lead official at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. He also worked for Turner Broadcasting System as the athletics broadcast coordinator for the 1990 Goodwill Games.

Publications

Joseph Hilbe wrote and edited many books and articles. Here are some of his key books:

• Hilbe, Joseph M., de Souza, Rafael S., Ishida, Emille E. O. Bayesian Models for Astrophysical Data: Using R, JAGS, Python, and Stan, Cambridge University Press (2017) ISBN: 978-1-1071-3308-2
• Hilbe, Joseph M., Practical Guide to Logistic Regression, Chapman & Hall/CRC (2015) ISBN: 978-1-4987-0957-6
• Hilbe, Joseph M., Modeling Count Data, Cambridge University Press (2014) ISBN: 978-1-1076-1125-2
• Hilbe, Joseph M., Astrostatistical Challenges for the New Astronomy, Springer (2012) ISBN: 978-1-4614-3507-5
• Hilbe, Joseph M., Negative Binomial Regression, Second Edition, Cambridge University Press (2011) ISBN: 978-0-521-19815-8
• Hilbe, Joseph M., Logistic Regression Models, Chapman & Hall/CRC Press (2009) ISBN: 978-1-4200-7575-5
• Hilbe, Joseph M., Negative Binomial Regression, Cambridge University Press (2007) ISBN: 978-0-521-85772-7

See also

• Stata
• Statistics
• International Astrostatistics Association
• The American Statistician
• American Statistical Association
• Royal Statistical Society
• International Statistical Institute
• American Astronomical Society