Leslie Kish

Leslie Kish (born László Kiss, July 27, 1910 – October 7, 2000) was a Hungarian-American statistician and survey methodologist.

Life and career Kish emigrated with his family to the US in 1925. His father soon died, and Kish helped support the family by working while continuing his studies in the evenings. In 1937 he volunteered for the International Brigade to fight against Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War. He saw action in a Hungarian battalion, was wounded, and returned to the United States in 1939. In 1939, he finished his baccalaureate in mathematics at the City College of New York.

Awards and honors In 1997, the American Statistical Association gave Kish their Wilks Memorial Award. The award citation read: "For being a truly outstanding statistician, who has had a profound influence on sample survey practice throughout the world."

Selected publications Kish, Leslie. Statistical Design for Research. New York: Wiley. 1987. . . . . On the basis of this paper, Kish's name is associated with the Kish grid.