PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

William S. Cleveland

Also known as William Swain Cleveland

William Cleveland was a statistician known for local regression, data visualization, and the S programming language. He studied mathematics at Princeton under William Feller, completed a statistics Ph.D. at Yale in 1969, and helped develop S at Bell Laboratories. He published LOWESS and LOESS, studies of graphical perception with Robert McGill, and the books The Elements of Graphing Data and Visualizing Data. In 2001 he defined data science as the term is used today, and at Purdue University he became Distinguished Professor of Statistics, with research that included machine learning. He received the 2016 Parzen Prize and the ASA Lifetime Achievement Award in Graphics and Computing, an honorary doctorate from Hasselt University in 2021, then retired in 2025 and died on March 27, 2026.

Works
181
Citations
37,720
h-index
52

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 17 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1960s–1969

    Mathematics at Princeton and Yale

    In the mid-1960s he receives an A.B. in mathematics from Princeton University under William Feller. In 1969 he completes a Ph.D. in statistics at Yale University, and Leonard Jimmie Savage advises the dissertation Time Series Projections, Theory and Practice.

  2. 1976

    The S language at Bell Labs

    At Bell Laboratories he helps develop the S programming language, a precursor to R, and a working version of S is built in 1976.

  3. 1979–1988

    LOWESS routines and LOESS

    In 1979 he publishes on local regression. He introduces the LOWESS routines for smoothing scatterplots in 1981, and in 1988 he and Susan J. Devlin describe LOESS.

  4. 1984

    A paper on graphical perception

    With Robert McGill, he publishes Graphical Perception: Theory, Experimentation, and Application to the Development of Graphical Methods in 1984.

  5. 1985–1993

    Books on graphing data

    He publishes The Elements of Graphing Data in 1985 and Visualizing Data in 1993.

  6. 2001

    A paper defining data science

    His 2001 paper, Data Science: An Action Plan for Expanding the Technical Areas of the Field of Statistics, defines data science as the term is used today.

  7. 2004–2025

    Distinguished professor at Purdue

    He joins Purdue University in 2004 and in January 2014 becomes the Shanti S. Gupta Distinguished Professor of Statistics and a courtesy professor of computer science, with research in statistics, machine learning, and data visualization. In 2016 he receives the Lifetime Achievement Award in Graphics and Computing from the American Statistical Association and the Parzen Prize for Statistical Innovation from Texas A&M University. Hasselt University awards him an honorary doctorate in 2021, and he retires in 2025.

  8. March 2026

    Death at age 83

    He dies on March 27, 2026, at the age of 83.

Sources and credits

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  1. William S. Cleveland - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 16 October 2026.
  2. William Cleveland, II - The Mathematics Genealogy Project genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu. Checked 16 October 2026.
  3. S (programming language) - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 16 October 2026.
  4. Local regression - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 16 October 2026.
  5. How William Cleveland Turned Data Visualization Into a Science - Priceonomics priceonomics.com. Checked 16 October 2026.
  6. William S. Cleveland stat.purdue.edu. Checked 16 October 2026.
  7. William S. Cleveland Receives Honorary Doctorate from Hasselt University - Department of Statistics - Purdue University stat.purdue.edu. Checked 16 October 2026.
  8. wsc - Department of Statistics - Purdue University stat.purdue.edu. Checked 16 October 2026.
  9. William Cleveland Obituary - Chicago, IL chicagotribune.com. Checked 16 October 2026.