Norman H. Nie
| Norman H. Nie | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 1, 1943 St. Louis, Missouri |
| Died | April 2, 2015 (aged 72) |
| Citizenship | American |
| Alma mater | University of the Americas, Washington University, Stanford University |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Sociology |
| Institutions | Stanford University |
| Academic advisors | Sidney Verba |
Norman H. Nie was an American social scientist, university professor, inventor, and pioneering technology entrepreneur, known for being one of the developers of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1943, Nie was educated at the University of the Americas in Mexico City, Washington University in St. Louis and Stanford University, where he received a Ph.D. in political science in 1971. He died on April 2nd, 2015.
While a graduate student at Stanford, Nie was faced with the daunting task of analyzing data from thousands of individual responses to a survey questionnaire he collected from seven nations with his advisor and mentor Sidney Verba.
Together with two young computer scientists, C. Hadlai ("Tex") Hull and Dale Bent, Nie invented a computer software package called the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). SPSS automated the process of data analysis, allowing users to manipulate data files, transform data, and generate statistics on a mainframe computer. Nie served as CEO from the company's founding in 1975 until 1992, and continued as Chairman of the Board and software design consultant until 2008. SPSS has been a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ since 1993. Originally invented to solve the problem of analyzing data for Nie's dissertation, SPSS soon became widely used among other social scientists and researchers. Along with SAS, it revolutionized empirical social science. In an essay entitled "Doing It Ourselves: The SPSS Manual as Sociology's Most Influential Recent Book", sociologist Barry Wellman wrote:
I have taken a stand here in favor of empowering tools as the most influential sociological development in recent decades. Which is more important? The findings or the tools that enabled us to make them – and many more? Which should we celebrate more? Copernicus' 16th-century hypothesis of the solar system or Galileo's 17th-century invention of the telescope that enabled scholars to understand it clearly? It is an irresolvable dialectic between knowing what to look for and knowing how to find something. But if pressed, I would vote for the toolmakers because they give us the eyes to see things.
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