Fred James (1939 – 2026)

Fred James, a celebrated expert on data analysis and statistics, passed away on 31 July 2026. Born in Detroit, USA on 28 May 1939, James graduated from Princeton University in 1960 with a degree in physics and earned his PhD from Yale University in 1965. He joined CERN in the late 1960s, where his mathematical prowess led him to become a pioneer of numerical methods in high-energy physics.

James was deeply involved in particle physics simulation techniques and authored the definitive review article "Monte Carlo theory and practice" in Reports on Progress in Physics. He also co-authored the popular book Statistical Methods in Experimental Physics and developed MINUIT, a function minimisation algorithm used extensively in particle physics and beyond.

James and his colleagues also wrote Statistical Methods in Experimental Physics, a widely influential treatise for researchers. In 2006, he published an updated edition of this book. James was a proponent of the frequentist interpretation of probability and advocated for objective inferences. He collaborated with Lorenzo Moneta on developing pseudo-random number generators, including RANLUX, which has been used for thirty years in various scientific branches.

James' computational tools and frequentist principles have shaped the analytical toolsets of generations of researchers and will continue to guide scientific discovery.