James O. Ramsay (born 5 September 1942) is a Canadian statistician and Professor Emeritus at McGill University, Montreal, who developed much of the statistical theory behind multidimensional scaling (MDS).

[2] James Ramsay was born in Prince George, British Columbia on 5 September 1942, but didn't reside there long.

His son Tim Ramsay grew up to become a statistician, winning a Pierre Robillard Award while attending Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario; they have since collaborated on publications in their professional relationship.

Ramsay's Princeton dissertation (1966) concerned MDS, "formalizing seminal contributions to the mathematical formulation" by Joseph Kruskal.

), Joseph Kruskal, Suzanne Winsberg, Melvin R. Novick, James B. Ramsey, Nancy E. Heckman, and Giles Hooker.

"[1] His favourite biography concerns Sir William Osler, born in rural Ontario, Canada in 1849, who went on to become one of the four founding fathers of Johns Hopkins Hospital, and made pioneering contributions to the system of medical residency.

At age 16 he completed a 1400 km journey though the Canadian Rockies, much of it on a one-track logging road that subsequently became the Yellowhead Highway.