His thesis advisor was William G. Cochran[7]
a statistician known for Cochran’s theorem, Cochran-Mantel-Haenzel Test and author of standard biostatistical texts: “Experimental Designs”[8] and “Sampling Techniques”.[9] Zippin’s doctoral thesis, An Evaluation of the Removal Method of Estimating Animal Populations became the basis for the Zippin Estimator, and has been used for estimating populations of a wide variety of animal species.[5] It is considered among the easiest and most accurate methods for estimating animal populations in the wild.[10]
Career
At the Sterling-Winthrop Research Institute, Zippin performed various laboratory and statistical duties under Lloyd C. Miller, Ph.D., later Director of Revision (1950-1970) of the United States Pharmacopoeia. Dr. Miller encouraged Zippin to pursue a career in statistics which led to his graduate work at Johns Hopkins[7] where he also held an appointment as a Research Assistant in Biostatistics from 1950 to 1953.
Following graduate school, Zippin became an instructor in biostatistics (1953-1955) at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley. He moved to the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco where, at the level of assistant professor, he held appointments in the Cancer Research Institute and the Department of Preventive Medicine. With further advancement, in 1967 he became Professor of Epidemiology in the Cancer Research Institute, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Department of Pathology. Since 1991 he has been Professor Emeritus.[11]
Zippin’s doctoral thesis became the basis for the Zippin Estimator, a mathematical procedure for estimating wildlife population size based on capture and removal of sequentially trapped animal samples.[5] The method was explored by P. A. P. Moran (1951)[12] and its properties elaborated by Zippin in 1956[13] and 1958.[14][5]: 8 [15]
Zippin collaborated with Peter Armitage,[30] extending a mathematical model assuming survival time of cancer patients to follow an exponential distribution whose key parameter (expected survival time) is linearly related to a measure of the severity (e.g., white blood count in leukemia) of disease. The extension provided for the common situation where some patients were still alive and their limited (censored) survival information could be used in estimating the value of the desired parameter.
From 1973 to 1995, Zippin collaborated with Dr. Yoav Horn[31] comparing characteristics of Arab cancer patients living on the West Bank, their disease and survival with those of patients in Israel and the United States. This project documented the need for improved treatment facilities and the training of oncologists in that region. Horn, an Israeli oncologist, started two cancer clinics in Nablus and Beit Jala and developed a training program for Arab oncologists for which Dr. Horn received the Sasakawa Health Prize from the World Health Organization in 2000.[32]
^Moran, P.A.P. (1951). "A mathematical theory of animal trapping". Biometrika. 38 (3–4): 307–311. doi:10.1093/biomet/38.3-4.307.
^Zippin, C (1956). "An evaluation of the removal method of estimating animal populations". Biometrics. 12 (2): 163–189. doi:10.2307/3001759. JSTOR3001759.
^Zippin, C (1958). "The removal method of population estimation". The Journal of Wildlife Management. 22 (1): 82–90. doi:10.2307/3797301. JSTOR3797301.
^Otis, David L.; Burnham, Kenneth P.; White, Gary C.; Anderson, David R. (1978). "Statistical Inference from Capture Data on Closed Animal Populations". Wildlife Monographs (62).
^ abZippin, C; Kohn, HI (1960). "An evaluation of the proposed international clinical staging system for cancer of the breast". Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 25: 13–24. PMID13847624.
^ abZippin, C (January 1966). "Comparison of the international and American systems for the staging of breast cancer". Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 36 (1): 53–62. PMID5901528.
^ abZippin, C; Lum, D; Kohn, HI; Bailar JC, 3rd (1981). "Late effects of radiation therapy for cancer of the uterine cervix". Cancer Detection and Prevention. 4 (1–4): 487–92. PMID7349815.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Zippin, Calvin; Tekawa, Irene; Bragg, Kay; Watson, Dorothy; Linden, George (1962). "Studies on Heredity and Environment in Cancer of the Nasopharynx". Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 29 (3): 483–490.
^Kohn, HI; Bailar, JC; Zippin, C (March 1965). "Radiation Therapy for Cancer of the Cervix: its Late Effect on the Lifespan as a Function of the Regional Dose". Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 34: 345–61. PMID14342584.
^Zippin, C; Cutler, SJ; Lum, D (March 1975). "Time trends in survival in acute lymphocytic leukemia". Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 54 (3): 581–6. PMID1054762.
^Zippin, Calvin; Armitage, Peter (December 1966). "Use of Concomitant Variables and Incomplete Survival Information in the Estimation of an Exponential Survival Parameter". Biometrics. 22 (4): 665. doi:10.2307/2528067. JSTOR2528067.
^Horn, Y; Zippin, C; Salhab, AR; Horani, Y (1991). "Cancer patterns at medical centers in Israel and the West Bank". Oncology. 48 (4): 301–8. doi:10.1159/000226947. PMID1891172.