THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA| e-mail: bruno.zumbo@ubc.ca | Telephone: (604) 822-1931 |
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The idea for the Edgeworth Laboratory came to me in 1990 while I was a professor in the Measurement & Evaluation Program at the University of Ottawa. In reading the history of our discipline it struck me that there is a long and important history of establishing 'laboratories' in the behavioral and educational sciences. An earlier form of this laboratory existed at the University of Ottawa under the title Edumetrics Research Group . The laboratory moved with me to the University of Northern British Columbia in December of 1994 where I was a Professsor of Mathematics and Psychology and then again with me in the summer of 2000 to The University of British Columbia. The laboratory primarily exists in cyberspace although it presently occupies most of my office and a laboratory at The University of British Columbia.
The laboratory has an active group of current and former graduate students as well as post-doctoral fellows.
The laboratory has three inter-related purposes: (a) to promote and highlight quantitative science to prospective students and colleagues in education, psychology, sociology, health and other fields of study, (b) to stimulate scholarly activity amoung research collaborators, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students, and (c) to act as a clearing house for a working paper and WWW publications series entitled The Edgeworth Series in Quantitative Behavioural Science.
The laboratory is named in honor of Professor F. Y. Edgeworth for
his foundational work and scholarship in the application of
mathematics and mathematical principles to the behavioural
sciences. As noted by the historian of science and statistician,
Professor S. Stigler, Professor Edgeworth "... was one of the
foremost economic theorists of his time, is also a possible
claimant to the title the father of Educational Statistics
(Stigler, 1992, p. 66). Educational & behavioral statistics
are very much aligned and many of us work in both fields -- in
fact, one of the leading journals is entitled the Journal of
Educational and Behavioral Statistics which is jointly
published by the American
Statistical Association and the American
Educational Research Association . In this laboratory we
try, in our own humble way, to continue Professor Edgeworth's
legacy.
Reference Stigler, S. M. (1992). A historical view of statistical concepts in Psychology and Educational Research. American Journal of Education, 101, 60-70.
Last updated: June 25, 2012