Abraham Wald
Abraham Wald | |
|---|---|
 A young Wald | |
| Born | October 31, 1902 |
| Died | December 13, 1950 (aged 48) |
| Nationality | Hungarian |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna |
| Known for | Wald's equation, Wald test, Wald's decision theory |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Cowles Commission for Research in Economics |
| Doctoral advisor | Karl Menger |
| Doctoral students | Meyer Girshick, Charles Stein, Milton Sobel |
Abraham Wald (October 31, 1902 - December 13, 1950) was a mathematician born in Kolozsvár, Hungary (now Cluj, Romania) who contributed to decision theory, geometry, and econometrics, and founded the field of statistical sequential analysis.[1]
Being a religious Jew, he could not attend school on Saturdays, as was required at the time by the Hungarian school system, and was thus home-schooled by his parents until college.[1] Fortunately, his parents were quite knowledgeable and competent as teachers.[2]
In 1927, he entered graduate school at the University of Vienna, from which he graduated in 1931 with a Ph.D. in mathematics. His advisor there was Karl Menger.[1]
When the Nazis invaded Austria in 1938, he and his family were persecuted as Jews. He was able to emigrate to the United States, at the invitation of the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics, to work on econometrics research.[1]
He and his wife died in an airplane crash in the Nilgiri mountains while on an extensive lecture tour at the invitation of the Indian government.[1]
Notable publications
For a complete list, see "The Publications of Abraham Wald". Annals of Mathematical Statistics. 23 (1): 29–33. 1952. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177729483.
- Wald, Abraham (1939). "A New Formula for the Index of Cost of Living". Econometrica. 7 (4): 319–331. doi:10.2307/1906982.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - Wald, Abraham (1939). "Contributions to the Theory of Statistical Estimation and Testing Hypotheses". Annals of Mathematical Statistics. 10 (4): 299–326. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177732144.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - Wald, Abraham (1940). "The Fitting of Straight Lines if Both Variables Are Subject to Error". Annals of Mathematical Statistics. 11 (3): 284–300. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177731868.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - Wald, Abraham (1945). "Sequential Tests of Statistical Hypotheses". The Annals of Mathematical Statistics. 16 (2): 117–186. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177731118.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - Wald, Abraham (1947). Sequential Analysis. New York: John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0471918067.
See Dover reprint: ISBN 0486439127
- Wald, Abraham (1950). Statistical Decision Functions. John Wiley and Sons, New York; Chapman and Hall, London. p. ix+179.
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e Morgenstern, Oskar (1951). "Abraham Wald, 1902-1950". Econometrica. 19 (4): 361–367. doi:10.2307/1907462.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Abraham Wald", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
Further reading
- Wolfowitz, Jacob (1952). "Abraham Wald, 1902-1950". Annals of Mathematical Statistics. 23 (1): 1–13. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177729480.