George Snedecor was born on October 20, 1882 in Memphis, Tennessee. He received a BS degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Alabama in 1905 and an MS in physics from the University of Michigan in 1913. After graduation, Snedecor joined the mathematics faculty at Iowa State University. He started the Statistics Department at Iowa State, the first such department at an American University.
Snedecor made important contributions to statistics, particularly in the areas of experimental design, tests of hypothesis, and applications to agricultural problems. He was elected as a fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1939, and served as president of the ASA in 1948.
Snedecor is best remembered for the derivation of the \(F\) distribution, named in honor of Ronald Fisher. Statistics with this distribution are important in interval estimation and hypothesis testing. George Snedecor died on February 15, 1974 in Amherst, Massachusetts.