John Viren

John Viren was tobacco-industry statistician who worked for the legal department of RJ Reynolds Tobacco. He collaborated with M. Laid (the Viren-Laird project) and with S James Kilpatrick

He briefly became celebrated by the tobacco industry over his claim that he had discovered a fatal flaw in the methodology of the Hirayama report which was the catalyst for political action against workplace and public smoking. It turned out that his 'flaw' was little more than nit-picking.