Ruth Rice Puffer (August 31, 1907 – September 2, 2002) was an American biostatistician who headed the Department of Health Statistics of the Pan American Health Organization, where she led the Inter-American Investigation of Childhood Mortality.[1][2][3][4][5]
Ruth Rice Puffer | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 31, 1907 Berlin, Massachusetts, |
| Died | September 2, 2002 (aged 95) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Harvard School of Public Health Smith College |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biostatistics |
| Institutions | Pan American Health Organization |
Life
editPuffer was born in Berlin, Massachusetts, and went to Hudson High School (Massachusetts).[1] She graduated from Smith College in 1929, began working with Edgar Bright Wilson in the Harvard School of Public Health, and in 1933 moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to become director of statistics in the Tennessee Department of Public Health. After additional graduate study with Wade Hampton Frost at Johns Hopkins University, she returned to Harvard and obtained a doctorate in public health (unusually, without also having completed an M.D.) in 1943.[1][2] She published her dissertation research on tuberculosis[2] as a book through the Harvard University Press.
After completing her doctorate, Puffer returned to Tennessee, but her interest in international health statistics was sparked by a 1946 lecture tour in Chile, and a return visit there in 1950.[2] From 1953 to 1970, she worked with the Pan American Health Organization.[1][2][3] Since that time, she continued to work as a consultant, including trips to India, Thailand, and Indonesia.[2] She moved to Corvallis, Oregon in 1982, and to McMinnville, Oregon, where she died, in 1991.[1]
Recognition
editPuffer was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1966.[6] In 1970, Smith College gave her an honorary doctorate, and in 1977, the Tennessee Department of Public Health gave her their Centennial Award for outstanding service. In 1978, she won the Abraham Horwitz Award for Inter-American Health. In 2002 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Pan American Health Organization, the organization listed her as one of 100 "public health heroes".[2]
Books
editPuffer was the author of:
- Familial Susceptibility to Tuberculosis: Its Importance as a Public Health Problem (Harvard University Press, 1944)[7]
- Practical Statistics in Health and Medical Work (McGraw-Hill, 1950)[8]
- Patterns of Urban Mortality (with G. Wynne Griffith, Pan American Health Organization, 1967)[9]
- Patterns of Mortality in Childhood (Pan American Health Organization, 1973)[10]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e "Dr. Ruth Rice Puffer", McMinnville News-Register, September 5, 2002
- ^ a b c d e f g "Ruth Rice Puffer: Highlights of a rewarding life" (PDF), Pan American Journal of Public Health, 12 (5), 2002
- ^ a b Laurenti, Ruy (2003), "Ruth Rice Puffer", American Journal of Public Health, 93 (6): 865–866, doi:10.2105/AJPH.93.6.865, PMC 1447856, PMID 12773341
- ^ Public Health Heroes: Dr. Ruth Puffer, Pan American Health Organization, retrieved 2017-11-19
- ^ Raphael, Dana (2012), Breastfeeding and Food Policy in a Hungry World, Elsevier, p. 325, ISBN 9780323154857
- ^ ASA Fellows list, American Statistical Association, retrieved 2017-11-19
- ^ Reviews of Familial Susceptibility to Tuberculosis:
- Tager, M. (March 1945), Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 17 (4) (4 ed.): 581, PMC 2601921
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - British Journal of Tuberculosis and Diseases of the Chest, 39 (4): 107–108, October 1945, doi:10.1016/s0366-0869(45)80031-x
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Glass, Bentley (September 1945), The Quarterly Review of Biology, 20 (3): 288, doi:10.1086/394939, JSTOR 2808926
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Caranti, Elio (1943–1949), Genus (in Italian), 6/8 (1): 542, JSTOR 29786841
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
- Tager, M. (March 1945), Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 17 (4) (4 ed.): 581, PMC 2601921
- ^ Reviews of Practical Statistics in Health and Medical Work:
- Parkhurst, Elizabeth (August 1950), American Journal of Public Health and the Nation's Health, 40 (8): 1017, doi:10.2105/ajph.40.8.1017-a, PMC 1528803
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Deardorff, Neva R. (September 1950), Social Service Review, 24 (3): 413–414, doi:10.1086/637983, JSTOR 30018551
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Knowelden, J. (September 1950), "The Statistician's Job", The British Medical Journal, 2 (4679): 610, doi:10.1136/bmj.2.4679.610-b, JSTOR 25358320, PMC 2038489
- Arnstein, Margaret (February 1951), The American Journal of Nursing, 51 (2) (2 ed.): 152, doi:10.2307/3459266, hdl:2027/mdp.39015010035346, JSTOR 3459266
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Sellers, A. H. (March 1951), Canadian Journal of Public Health, 42 (3): 113–114, JSTOR 41980128
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Winsor, C. P. (June 1951), The Quarterly Review of Biology, 26 (2): 243–244, doi:10.1086/398224, JSTOR 2809359
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
- Parkhurst, Elizabeth (August 1950), American Journal of Public Health and the Nation's Health, 40 (8): 1017, doi:10.2105/ajph.40.8.1017-a, PMC 1528803
- ^ Review of Patterns of Urban Mortality:
- ^ Review of Patterns Of Mortality In Childhood: