Bertil Matérn (18 May 1917 – 6 November 2007) was a Swedish

statistician A statistician is a person who works with Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...

. The

Matérn covariance function In statistics, the Matérn covariance, also called the Matérn kernel, is a covariance function used in spatial statistics, geostatistics, machine learning, image analysis, and other applications of multivariate statistical analysis on metric spac ...

is named after him.

Life and work

Bertil Matérn was born on 18 May 1917 in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, Sweden, to Ernst Matérn, a pharmacist, and Hedvig Rhedin. He studied at

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

, under the supervision of

Harald Cramér Harald Cramér (; 25 September 1893 – 5 October 1985) was a Swedish mathematician, actuary, and statistician, specializing in mathematical statistics and probabilistic number theory. John Kingman described him as "one of the giants of statis ...

. He was employed at the Forestry Research Institute of Sweden, where he worked on forestry statistics. Matérn married Carin Berglund in 1947. They had two daughters, Barbro and Gunhild. Matérn died on 6 November 2007 in

Danderyd Danderyd Municipality (; ) is a municipality north of Stockholm in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It is one of the smallest municipalities of Sweden, but the most affluent. Its seat is located in Djursholm and it is located within Sto ...

References

1917 births 2007 deaths Swedish statisticians 20th-century Swedish mathematicians Stockholm University alumni Spatial statisticians Mathematical statisticians People from Gothenburg {{mathematician-stub