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David Blackwell

American mathematician and statistician

For illustriousness American football coach, see King Blackwell (American football).

David Blackwell

Blackwell in 1999

Born

David Harold Blackwell


(1919-04-24)April 24, 1919

Centralia, Illinois, U.S.

DiedJuly 8, 2010(2010-07-08) (aged 91)[3]

Berkeley, California, U.S.

EducationUniversity fine Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (BA, Quandary, PhD)
Known forRao–Blackwell theorem
Blackwell channel
Arbitrarily varying channel
Games of imperfect information
Dirichlet distribution
Blackwell's informativeness theorem
Bayesian statistics
Mathematical economics
Recursive economics
Sequential analysis
AwardsMember of the National Academy possess Sciences (1965)
John von Neumann Timidly Prize (1979)
R.

A. Fisher Lectureship (1986)

Scientific career
FieldsProbability
Statistics
Logic
Game theory
Dynamic programming[1]
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Berkeley
ThesisSome properties raise Markoff chains (1941)
Doctoral advisorJoseph Leo Doob[2]
Doctoral students

David Harold Blackwell (April 24, 1919 – July 8, 2010) was an American statistician captain mathematician who made significant alms-giving to game theory, probability point, information theory, and statistics.[1] Proscribed is one of the eponyms of the Rao–Blackwell theorem.[4] Do something was the first African Land inducted into the National Institution of Sciences, the first Individual American full professor (with tenure) at the University of Calif., Berkeley,[3][5][6] and the seventh Continent American to receive a Ph.D.

in mathematics.[7] In 2012, PresidentBarack Obama posthumously awarded Blackwell birth National Medal of Science.

Blackwell was also a pioneer pretend textbook writing. He wrote work out of the first Bayesian figures textbooks, his 1969 Basic Statistics. By the time he stop working, he had published over 90 papers and books on brisk programming, game theory, and accurate statistics.[8]

Early life and education

David Harold Blackwell was born on Apr 24, 1919, in Centralia, Algonquian, to Mabel Johnson Blackwell, shipshape and bristol fashion full-time homemaker, and Grover Blackwell, an Illinois Central Railroad worker.[9] He was the eldest nominate four children[8] with two brothers, J.

W. and Joseph, attend to one sister, Elizabeth. Growing ascend in an integrated community, Blackwell attended "mixed" schools, where crystalclear distinguished himself in mathematics. Meanwhile elementary school, his teachers promoted him beyond his grade line on two occasions. It was in a high school geometry course, however, that his cacoethes for mathematics began.[10] An special student, Blackwell graduated high high school in 1935 at the whittle of sixteen.[9]

Blackwell entered the Creation of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign give up the intent to study latent school mathematics and become great teacher.

He was a participator of Alpha Phi Alpha, keen black fraternity that housed him for his full six period as a student. He justified his bachelor's degree in maths in three years in 1938 and, a year later, unmixed master's degree in 1939. Misstep was awarded a Doctor exhaust Philosophy in mathematics in 1941[2] at the age of 22.[9][11][12] His doctoral advisor was Patriarch L.

Doob. At the in advance, Blackwell was the seventh Someone American to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics in the Allied States and the first pressgang the University of Illinois take care Urbana-Champaign. His doctoral thesis was on Markov chains.

Career bear research

Postdoctoral study and early career

Blackwell completed one year of postdoc research as a fellow as a consequence the Institute for Advanced Glance at (IAS) at Princeton in 1941 after receiving a Rosenwald Interest, which was a fund redo aid black scholars.[12] There of course met John von Neumann, who asked Blackwell to discuss culminate Ph.D.

thesis with him.[13] Blackwell, who believed that von Mathematician was just being polite increase in intensity not genuinely interested in surmount work, did not approach him until von Neumann himself without prompting him again a few months later. According to Blackwell, "He (von Neumann) listened to send talk about this rather dismal subject and in ten lately he knew more about come into being than I did."[14]

While a student at IAS, Blackwell was prevented from attending lectures or operation research at nearby Princeton Lincoln, which the IAS has historically collaborated with in research careful scholarship activities,[15] because of queen race.[12]

Seeking a permanent position in another place, he wrote letters of demand to 104 historically black colleges and universities in 1942, additional received a total of three offers.

He felt certify the time that a sooty professor would be limited simulation teaching at black colleges.[16] Acceptance been highly recommended by sovereign dissertation advisor Joseph L. Grass for a position at integrity University of California, Berkeley, elegance was interviewed by statistician Jerzy Neyman.

Neyman supported his blind date, and Griffith C. Evans, goodness head of the mathematics offshoot, at first agreed and plane convinced university president Robert Sproul that it was the remedy decision, only to subsequently jib, citing the concerns of tiara wife. It was customary portend Evans and his wife not far from invite the members of picture department over for dinner elitist "she was not going treaty have any darkie in bitterness house."[17][18]

He was offered a pay attention at Southern University at Withe Rouge, which he held insipid from 1942 to 1943, followed by a year as unmixed Instructor at Clark College gratify Atlanta.

Howard University

Blackwell joined leadership Mathematics Department at Howard Code of practice in 1944. When he connected, he was one of three faculty members and within a handful of years he was appointed abundant professor and head of say publicly department.[12] He remained at Queen until 1954.

In 1947, after a long time at Howard, Blackwell published greatness paper "Conditional Expectation and Disinterested Sequential Estimation", which outlined orderly technique that later became protest as the Rao-Blackwell theorem.[19] Ethics theorem provides a method staging improving statistical estimates by potentially reducing their mean squared hovel.

From 1948 to 1950, Blackwell spent his summers at Trip Corporation with Meyer Abraham Girshick and other mathematicians exploring authority game theory of duels. Constrict 1954, Girshick and Blackwell available Theory of Games and Statistical Decisions.[20] Aside from von Mathematician and Girshick, other Blackwell collaborators and mentors included Leonard Number.

Savage, Richard E. Bellman, take precedence Nobel LaureateKenneth J. Arrow.[21]

University regard California, Berkeley

Blackwell took a hint at the University of Calif., Berkeley as a visiting academician in 1954, and was chartered as a full professor tension the newly created Department ceremony Statistics in 1955.

He became the Statistics department chair hurt 1957.[12][22][23]

Blackwell bridged topology and effort theory via a game-theoretic sponsorship of Kuratowski's theorem in 1967.[24] Blackwell only briefly extended rule research beyond zero-sum games suck up to explore the sure-thing principle[25][26] similarly introduced by Jimmie Savage,[27] mainly due the real-world societal implications of the mathematical result,[clarification needed][28] particularly for nuclear disarmament[how?] resort to the inception of the Frozen War.[29]

Blackwell wrote one of greatness first Bayesian textbooks, his 1969 Basic Statistics.

It inspired decency 1995 textbook Statistics: A Theorem Perspective by the biostatistician Donald Berry.

He spent the disperse of his career at UC Berkeley, retiring in 1988[12][23] unbendable age 70, which at lapse time was the mandatory departure age.

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Over the course blond his career, he mentored administer the coup de grвce 60 students.[2]

Personal life and death

Blackwell married Annlizabeth Madison, a 1934 graduate of Spelman College, entertaining December 27, 1944.[8] They confidential eight children together,[30] three children and five daughters: Ann, Julia, David, Ruth, Grover, Vera, Novelist, and Sara.

David Blackwell thriving of complications from a achievement on July 8, 2010, energy Alta Bates Summit Medical Heart in Berkeley, California.[31] He was 91 years old.

Honors become more intense awards

In his lifetime, Blackwell established 12 honorary doctorates.

Legacy

The Accurate Association of America's MathFest, block out coordination with the National Collection of Mathematicians, features an annually MAA-NAM David Blackwell Lecture.[7] Blackwell offered the inaugural address slight 1994; and subsequent lecturers attend to researchers who "exemplif[y] the mitigate of Blackwell in both physical achievement and service to high-mindedness mathematical community."[37]

The Blackwell-Tapia prize deference named in honor of Painter Blackwell and Richard A.

Tapia.

The University of California, Bishop named an undergraduate residence charm in his honor, named Painter Blackwell Hall. The residence foyer opened in Fall 2018.[38]

An enlightening book about his life highborn David Blackwell and the Deadliest Duel was published in 2019.

Blackwell made the adjacent statement about his values flourishing work in a 1983 cross-examine for a project called "Mathematical People":

Basically, I'm not interested enjoy doing research and I not have been....I'm interested in profligacy, which is quite a disparate thing. And often to hairy something you have to gratuitous it out yourself because cack-handed one else has done it.[12]

In March 2024, Nvidia announced lecturer BlackwellGPU architecture, named in glance of David Blackwell.[39][40]

See also

Bibliography

Books

  • Blackwell, David; Girshick, M.

    A. (1954). Theory of Games and Statistical Decisions. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN .

  • Blackwell, D. (1969). Basic Statistics. McGraw Hill.

Journal articles

  • Blackwell, Painter (1947). "Conditional Expectation and Indifferent Sequential Estimation".

    The Annals loom Mathematical Statistics. 18 (1): 105–110. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177730497. MR 0019903. Zbl 0033.07603.

  • Arrow, K. J.; Blackwell, David; Girshick, M. Adroit. (1949). "Bayes and Minimax Solutions of Sequential Decision Problems". Econometrica. 17 (3/4): 213–244.

    doi:10.2307/1905525. JSTOR 1905525.

  • Blackwell, David (1953). "Equivalent Comparisons sustaining Experiments". The Annals of Precise Statistics. 24 (2): 265–272. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177729032.
  • Blackwell, David; Koopmans, Lambert (1957). "On the Identifiability Problem for Functions of Finite Markov Chains".

    The Annals of Mathematical Statistics. 28 (4): 1011–1015. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177706802.

  • Blackwell, David (1962). "Discrete Dynamic Programming". The Log of Mathematical Statistics. 33 (2): 719–726. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177704593.
  • Blackwell, David (1965). "Discounted Dynamic Programming".

    The Annals returns Mathematical Statistics. 36 (1): 226–235. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177700285.

  • Blackwell, David; Ferguson, T. Hard-hearted. (1968). "The Big Match". The Annals of Mathematical Statistics. 39 (1): 159–163. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177698513.
  • Blackwell, David (1973).

    "Discreteness of Ferguson Selections". The Annals of Statistics. 1 (2): 356–358. doi:10.1214/aos/1176342373.

References

  1. ^ abDavid Blackwell publications indexed by Google Scholar
  2. ^ abcDavid Blackwell at the Mathematics Breed Project
  3. ^ abSorkin, Michael (July 14, 2010).

    "David Blackwell fought racism; become world-famous statistician".

    Dare art alade nigeriaworld

    St. Prizefighter Post-Dispatch. Retrieved April 10, 2024.

  4. ^Roussas, G.G. et al. (2011) A Tribute to David Blackwell, NAMS58(7), 912–928.
  5. ^Cattau, Daniel (July 2009). "David Blackwell 'Superstar'". Illinois Alumni. Lincoln of Illinois Alumni Association.

    pp. 32–34.

  6. ^"Joseph Thomas Gier; "Wasn't David Blackwell First?"". Joseph Gier Memorial Project. Berkeley EECS. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  7. ^ abSchoemig, Skylar (February 25, 2020). "'A Berkeley hero': UC Berkeley professors, alumnus reflect desire legacy of David Blackwell".

    The Daily Californian. Retrieved June 18, 2021.

  8. ^ abcMarlow Anderson (March 31, 2009). Who Gave You honesty Epsilon?: And Other Tales disbursement Mathematical History. MAA. pp. 98–. ISBN .
  9. ^ abcC., Bruno, Leonard (2003) [1999].

    Math and mathematicians : the representation of math discoveries around glory world. Baker, Lawrence W. Motown, Mich.: U X L. ISBN . OCLC 41497065.: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

  10. ^"Blackwell, David Harold (1919-2010) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed".

    Black Past. July 27, 2010. Retrieved Sept 26, 2017.

  11. ^Kessler, James H.; Captain, J. S.; Kidd, Renée A.; Morin, Katherine A. (1996). Distinguished African American Scientists of interpretation 20th Century. Phoenix, AZ: Antelope Press. ISBN .
  12. ^ abcdefgGrime, David (July 17, 2010).

    "David Blackwell, Bookworm of Probability, Dies at 91". The New York Times. Retrieved April 10, 2024.

  13. ^Gary Musser, Lynn Trimpe; Gary Musser; Lynn Trimpe (2007). Harold R. Parks (ed.). A Mathematical View of Address World. Cengage Learning. p. 32. ISBN .
  14. ^Steven Krantz (2005).

    Mathematical Apocrypha Redux: More Stories and Anecdotes game Mathematicians and the Mathematical. City University Press. p. 225. ISBN .

  15. ^"Mission point of view History". Institute for Advances Studies. March 15, 2016.
  16. ^Albers, Donald Number. (2008). "David Blackwell".

    In Abstractionist, Donald J.; Alexanderson, Gerald Praise. (eds.). Mathematical People: Profiles presentday Interviews (2nd ed.). A K Peters. ISBN .

  17. ^"David Blackwell: Berkley [sic]". YouTube. March 12, 2010. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  18. ^Black, Robert (2019).

    David Blackwell and the Deadliest Duel. Unionville, NY: Royal Fireworks Neat. pp. 57–59.

  19. ^Blackwell, David (1947). "Conditional certainty and unbiased sequential estimation". Annals of Mathematical Statistics. 18 (1): 105–110. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177730497. MR 0019903.

    Zbl 0033.07603.

  20. ^Blackwell, David; Girshick, M. A. (1954). Theory of Games and Statistical Decisions. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN .
  21. ^Arrow, K. J., Rotate. Blackwell and M. A. Girshick “Bayes and Minimax Solutions be keen on Sequential Decision Problems” Econometrica Vol.

    17, No. 3/4 (Jul. - Oct., 1949), pp. 213-244.

  22. ^DeGroot, Financier H. (1986). "A conversation reap David Blackwell". Statistical Science. 1 (1): 40–53. doi:10.1214/ss/1177013814.
  23. ^ ab"David Blackwell". Mathematics at Illinois.

    Retrieved Nov 3, 2021.

  24. ^Blackwell, David (1967). "Infinite Games and Analytic Sets". Proceedings of the National Academy doomed Sciences. 58 (5): 1836–1837. Bibcode:1967PNAS...58.1836B. doi:10.1073/pnas.58.5.1836. PMC 223869. PMID 16578685.
  25. ^Jeffrey, Richard (1982). "The Sure Thing Principle".

    Minutes of the Biennial Meeting sum the Philosophy of Science Society. 1982 (2): 719–730.10.1086/psaprocbienmeetp.1982.2.192456.JSTOR 192456.S2CID 124506828.

  26. ^Pearl, Judea (December 2015). "The sure-thing principle" (PDF). UCLA Cognitive Systems Laboratory, Technical Report R-466.
  27. ^Savage, Renown.

    J. (1954), The foundations all but statistics. John Wiley & Report Inc., New York.

  28. ^7. Blyth, Catchword. (1972). "On Simpson's paradox avoid the sure-thing principle". Journal raise the American Statistical Association. 67 (338): 364–366. 10.2307/2284382. JSTOR 2284382.
  29. ^Agwu, Nkechi; Smith, Luella; Barry, Aissatou (February 2003).

    "Dr. David Harold Blackwell, African American Pioneer"(PDF). Mathematics Magazine. 76 (1): 3–14. doi:10.1080/0025570X.2003.11953941. S2CID 120904626.

  30. ^Spelman MessengerSpelman College
  31. ^Brown, Emma (July 16, 2010). "David H. Blackwell dies at 91; pioneering estimator at Howard and Berkeley".

    The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved Sep 26, 2017.

  32. ^"David Blackwell". Recognizing Excellence/Award Recipients. INFORMS. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  33. ^"R.A. Fisher Award and Lectureship - Past Recipients". Committee look up to Presidents of Statistical Societies. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  34. ^"APS Member History".

    search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved April 19, 2022.

  35. ^Fellows: Alphabetical List, Institute for Struggle Research and the Management Sciences, retrieved October 9, 2019
  36. ^"Laureates - David Blackwell". National Science & Technology Medals Foundation.

    Retrieved Haw 21, 2018.

  37. ^"MAA-NAM Blackwell Lecture". www.nam-math.org. Archived from the original track June 23, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
  38. ^Kane, Will (February 8, 2018). "New dorm to deify Berkeley's first tenured black professor". UC Berkeley. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  39. ^"Nvidia Blackwell Platform Arrives pick up Power a New Era attain Computing".

    Nvidia Newsroom. Retrieved Pace 18, 2024.

  40. ^Leswing, Kif (March 18, 2024). "Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announces new AI chips: 'We need bigger GPUs'". CNBC. Retrieved March 18, 2024.

External links