Overview
William John Youden (1900–1971) was an American statistician at the National Bureau of Standards, known for contributions to the design of experiments (Youden squares), interlaboratory testing, and diagnostic-test evaluation.
Key Contributions / Features
- Youden's J index (Youden 1950): the single-number summary J=sensitivity+specificity−1 for rating diagnostic tests, prevalence-invariant and still the basis of the "Youden index point" for ROC cutpoint selection.
- Youden squares: incomplete-block experimental designs; foundational work on statistical methods for physical-science measurement and interlaboratory comparison.
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