C. Jean Thompson
C. Jean Thompson is a New Zealand statistician who served as president of the New Zealand Statistical Association from 1991 to 1993.
Because she was a girl, Thompson was prevented from taking any mathematical subjects in high school until sixth form, when she was the top of her school's physics class. At university, she wanted to study statistics, but there was no program in that subject, so she earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics. She worked in the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, in their Applied Mathematics Division. She learned statistics on the job, and used an Elliott 503, the first scientific computer in New Zealand, to perform her analyses.
As president of the NZSA, she took the opportunity of the 1993 Women's Suffrage Centenary Celebration to collect and display material about women in statistics in New Zealand that was later collected into a book, Women with Maths — Making a difference.
Thompson's publications with the Applied Mathematics Division concerned topics ranging from earthquakes to horticulture. The Applied Mathematics Division was eliminated in the restructuring of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1992. Later, Thompson came to work for the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, where she became a co-author of several books on childhood education.
