William Gosset was born on June 13, 1876 in Canterbury England. He was educated at New College, Oxford University, where he studied chemistry and mathematics. At Oxford, Gosset studied under George Airy.
From 1899 until shortly before his death, Gosset worked as a chemist and statistician for the Guinness Brewery, known to this day for really great beer. He is best known for his study of the probability distribution now known as the \(t\) distribution. Because the brewery did allow publication by employees, Gosset published his work on the \(t\) distribution in 1908 under the pseudonym Student
William Gosset died on October 16, 1937 in Beaconsfield, England.