Statistician. Born in Rutherglen, Cochran was educated at the Universities of Glasgow and Cambridge. He worked initially in the field of agricultural statistics, designing sampling strategies at the experimental station at Rothamsted. He emigrated for the USA in 1939, initially to Iowa, then Princeton, followed by North Carolina Institute of Statistics, Johns Hopkins University, where he researched in the field of medical statistics, and finally Harvard. He did much to promote the field of statistics in the USA and is remembered for his work on the design of agricultural experiments, crop yields and sample survey design.
Cochran died in Orleans (Massachusetts).