Education
He earned his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1955, and was appointed associate professor
He earned his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1955, and was appointed associate professor
Roberts began teaching at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 1949 as an instructor of statistics. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1951. He was made full professor in 1959, and was named Sigmund East. Edelstone Professor of Statistics and Quality Management in 1991.
His varied research interests also included interactive computing.
Time series analysis. The relation between statistical theory and practical decision making.
Survey methodology and practice. And productivity and quality improvement.
Roberts was the co-author of many influential publications, including two groundbreaking books: Basic Methods of Marketing Research (with James Lorie) and the textbook, Statistics: A New Approach (with West Allen Wallis).
He also co-authored an early work on the random walk hypothesis of stock market prices, “Differencing of Random Walks and Near Random Walks,” with Nicholas Gonedes, published in the Journal of Econometrics in 1977. Roberts was an early computer enthusiast, and was especially interested in developing computer methods for statistical analysis. This was a novel application of total quality management methods to self-improvement, reminiscent of self-experimentation.