Gelman is the Higgins Professor of Statistics and Professor of Political Science and the Director of the Applied Statistics Center at Columbia University.[4][5] He is a major contributor to statistical philosophy and methods especially inBayesian statistics[6] andhierarchical models.[7]
He is one of the leaders of the development of the statistical programming frameworkStan.
Perspective on Statistical Inference and Hypothesis Testing
Gelman's approach to statistical inference emphasizes studying variation and the associations between data, rather than searching forstatistical significance.[8]
Gelman says his approach to hypothesis testing is "(nearly) the opposite of the conventional view"[9] of what is typical for statistical inference. While the standard approach may be seen as having the goal of rejecting a null hypothesis, Gelman argues that you can't learn much from a rejection. On the other hand, a non-rejection tells you something: "[it] tells you that your study is noisy, that you don't have enough information in your study to identify what you care about—even if the study is done perfectly, even if measurements are unbiased and your sample is representative of your population, etc. That can be some useful knowledge, it means you're off the hook trying to explain some pattern that might just be noise." Gelman also works within the context of larger confirmationist and falsificationist paradigms of science.[10]
Gelman's approach to statistical inference is a major recurring theme of his work.[11]
Gelman is notable for his efforts to make political science and statistics more accessible to journalists and to the public. He was one of the primary authors of "The Monkey Cage",[12] blog published byThe Washington Post. The blog is dedicated to providing informed commentary on politics and making political science more accessible.[13]
Gelman also keeps his own blog which deals with statistical practices in social science.[14] He frequently writes about Bayesian statistics, displaying data, and interesting trends in social science.[15][16] According toThe New York Times, on the blog "he posts his thoughts on best statistical practices in the sciences, with a frequent emphasis on what he sees as the absurd and unscientific... He is respected enough that his posts are well read; he is cutting enough that many of his critiques are enjoyed with a strong sense of schadenfreude."[17]
Gelman is a prominent critic of poor methodological work and he identifies such work as contributing to thereplication crisis.[17]
Gelman married Caroline Rosenthal in 2002[24] and has three children.[25] The psychologistSusan Gelman is his older sister[26] and cartoonistWoody Gelman was his uncle.[27]
Andrew Gelman, David Park, Boris Shor, and Jeronimo Cortina.Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do (2nd edition).Princeton University Press, 2009. ISBN 0-691-14393-5
Andrew Gelman,John B. Carlin, Hal S. Stern,David Dunson, Aki Vehtari, andDonald B. Rubin.Bayesian Data Analysis (3rd edition). Chapman & Hall/CRC, 2013. ISBN 1-4398-4095-4
^Kesselman, Ellie (10 September 2014)."Statistics comes to Swarthmore College".Archived from the original on 30 August 2017. Retrieved19 November 2016....familiar name on that very short list of all Harvard Statistics PhD alumni: Columbia University political science and statistics professor Andrew Gelman in 1990
^Andrew Gelman, John B. Carlin, Hal S. Stern and Donald B. Rubin. "Bayesian Data Analysis" (2nd edition). Chapman & Hall/CRC, 2003.ISBN978-1-58488-388-3
^Gelman, Andrew (14 July 2006)."Uncle Woody".Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science.Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved5 July 2018.
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