title: R A Fisher, design theory, and the Indian connection.
abstract: Design Theory, a branch of mathematics, was born out of the experimental statistics research of the population geneticist R A Fisher and of Indian mathematical statisticians in the 1930s. The field combines elements of combinatorics, finite projective geometries, Latin squares, and a variety of further mathematical structures, brought together in surprising ways. This essay will present these structures and ideas as well as how the field came together, in itself an interesting story.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA. arau@phys.lsu.edu
authors.forename: A R P
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Rau
mesh_terms: D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008433:Mathematics / Q000145:classification; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012107:Research Design; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000266:history*