Francis X. Schumacher (March 14, 1892 – June 3, 1967) was a prominent forest biometrician. He served on the forestry faculty at The University of California before being called to work as chief of the section forest measurements, U.S. Forest Service.Science Vol. 72, No. 1865. (September 26, 1930), p. 315. His interest in statistics led him to an affiliation with R.A. Fisher, and Schumacher led early advances to adopt statistical methods in forest inventories and silvicultural research. He joined the faculty of the Duke Graduate School of Forestry as one of its original seven faculty members.Science Vol. 87, No. 2253. (March 4, 1938), p. 208. He co-authored textbooks on forest mensuration and sampling with other notable forest biometricians Donald BruceBruce, D., and F.X. Schumacher. 1942. Forest Mensuration. McGraw-Hill. New York. 425p. and Roy A. Chapman.Schumacher, F.X. and R.A. Chapman. 1942. Sampling methods in forestry and range management. The Seeman printery. Durham, NC. 213p. He was the first to apply the equation form Y = ea+b/X, widely known as the Schumacher equation, to timber growth and yield modeling.Thornley, J.H.M., and J. France. 2007. Mathematical models in agriculture : quantitative methods for the plant, animal and ecological sciences CABI Pub. Wallingford. 906p.
In 1957, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.View/Search Fellows of the ASA , accessed 2016-07-23. Schumacher was named a Fellow, Society of American Foresters in 1959Science Vol. 130, No. 3389. (December 11, 1959), p. 1647. and was awarded an honorary doctorate from North Carolina State University the same year.NC State University, honorary degrees conferred. 1917-present. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
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