Jane Worcester (died 8 October 1989)[1] was a biostatistician and epidemiologist who became the second tenured female professor, after Martha May Eliot, and the first female chair of biostatistics in the Harvard School of Public Health.
[2][3] Worcester graduated from Smith College in 1931, with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, and was hired by Harvard biostatistician Edwin B. Wilson to become a human computer at Harvard.
[1] They continued to work together on theoretical research in biostatistics until Wilson retired as chair of the department in 1945,[2] eventually publishing 27 papers together.
[5] She joined the Harvard faculty, was granted tenure in 1962,[3] and succeeded Robert Reed as chair of the Department of Biostatistics in 1974[1] until 1977, when she retired.
[1][2][6] She moved to Falmouth on Cape Cod and died there on October 8, 1989 at 88 years of age.