George Kingsley Zipf

George Kingsley Zipf ( /ˈzɪf/; 1902–1950), was an American linguist and philologist who studied statistical occurrences in different languages.

Zipf was Chairman of the German Department and University Lecturer (meaning he could teach any subject he chose) at Harvard University. He worked with Chinese languages and demographics, and much of his effort can explain properties of the Internet, distribution of income within nations, and many other collections of data.