| William G. Cochran | |
| Birth Date: | July 15, 1909 |
| Birth Place: | Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, Scotland[1] |
| Death Place: | Orleans, Massachusetts |
| Nationality: | American |
| Fields: | Statistics |
| Workplaces: | Rothamsted Experimental Station Iowa State University North Carolina State University Johns Hopkins University Harvard University |
| Education: | University of Glasgow University of Cambridge |
| Academic Advisors: | John Wishart |
| Doctoral Students: | Donald Rubin Calvin Zippin Helen Abbey Ralph B. D'Agostino |
| Known For: | Cochran's C test Cochran's Q test Cochran's theorem Cochran–Mantel–Haenszel statistics |
William Gemmell Cochran (15 July 1909 – 29 March 1980) was a prominent statistician. He was born in Scotland but spent most of his life in the United States.
Cochran studied mathematics at the University of Glasgow and the University of Cambridge. He worked at Rothamsted Experimental Station from 1934 to 1939, when he moved to the United States. There he helped establish several departments of statistics. His longest spell in any one university was at Harvard, which he joined in 1957 and from which he retired in 1976.
Cochran wrote many articles and books. His books became standard texts: