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was a Japanese
statistician A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may wor ...
. In the early 1970s, he formulated the
Akaike information criterion The Akaike information criterion (AIC) is an estimator of prediction error and thereby relative quality of statistical models for a given set of data. Given a collection of models for the data, AIC estimates the quality of each model, relative to ...
(AIC). AIC is now widely used for
model selection Model selection is the task of selecting a statistical model from a set of candidate models, given data. In the simplest cases, a pre-existing set of data is considered. However, the task can also involve the design of experiments such that the ...
, which is commonly the most difficult aspect of statistical inference; additionally, AIC is the basis of a paradigm for the
foundations of statistics The foundations of statistics concern the epistemological debate in statistics over how one should conduct inductive inference from data. Among the issues considered in statistical inference are the question of Bayesian inference versus frequenti ...
. Akaike also made major contributions to the study of
time series In mathematics, a time series is a series of data points indexed (or listed or graphed) in time order. Most commonly, a time series is a sequence taken at successive equally spaced points in time. Thus it is a sequence of discrete-time data. E ...
. As well, he had a large role in the general development of statistics in Japan.


Akaike information criterion

The
Akaike information criterion The Akaike information criterion (AIC) is an estimator of prediction error and thereby relative quality of statistical models for a given set of data. Given a collection of models for the data, AIC estimates the quality of each model, relative to ...
(AIC) is an estimator of the relative quality of
statistical model A statistical model is a mathematical model that embodies a set of statistical assumptions concerning the generation of sample data (and similar data from a larger population). A statistical model represents, often in considerably idealized form, ...
s for a given set of data. Given a collection of models for the data, AIC estimates the quality of each model, relative to each of the other models. Thus, AIC provides a means for
model selection Model selection is the task of selecting a statistical model from a set of candidate models, given data. In the simplest cases, a pre-existing set of data is considered. However, the task can also involve the design of experiments such that the ...
. AIC was first formally described in a research paper by . As of October 2014, the paper had received more than 14000 citations in the Web of Science: making it the 73rd most-cited research paper of all time. (As of April 2016, the paper had received about 17000 citations.) Nowadays, AIC has become common enough that it is often used without citing Akaike's 1974 paper. Indeed, there are over 170,000 scholarly articles/books that use AIC (as assessed by
Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...
).


Life and career

Hirotugu Akaike was born to a silkworm farmer in Fujinomiya City; he was the youngest of four brothers.
text
at Tong's website.
In 1957, he married Ayako, with whom he afterward had three daughters; Ayako died (of subarachnoid haemorrhage) in 1983. He later married Mitsuko, who remained his wife for the rest of his life. Akaike graduated with a bachelor's degree from the School of Science at the
University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
, in 1952.C.V.
, Hirotugu Akaike Memorial Website (
Institute of Statistical Mathematics An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...
).
He then became a researcher at the
Institute of Statistical Mathematics An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...
. In 1961, obtained his Doctor of Science, in mathematics, from the University of Tokyo. Afterward, he continued researching at the institute; much of his research pertained to
time series In mathematics, a time series is a series of data points indexed (or listed or graphed) in time order. Most commonly, a time series is a sequence taken at successive equally spaced points in time. Thus it is a sequence of discrete-time data. E ...
, where he made major contributions. From 1986 until 1994, when he retired, he was director general of the institute. In 1988, he founded the Department of Statistical Science at the
Graduate University for Advanced Studies is one of the national universities of Japan, headquartered in Shonan Village (湘南国際村) in the town of Hayama in Kanagawa Prefecture. , as it is generally called in its abbreviated form, was established in 1988, with Dr. Saburo Nagaku ...
; he was chair of the department from the founding until his retirement in 1994.Kitagawa, Genshiro (2011),
Contribution of Prof. H. Akaike to Statistical Modeling of Complex Systems
,
58th World Statistics Congress
of the
International Statistical Institute The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a professional association of statisticians. It was founded in 1885, although there had been international statistical congresses since 1853. The institute has about 4,000 elected members from gov ...
''.
From 1994 until his death, he was an emeritus professor at both the institute and the Graduate University. During his career, Akaike held visiting positions at a number of universities:
Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
(1966–1967),
Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
(1967, 1979),
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(1972), the
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research. On 1 Oct ...
(1973), Harvard (Vinton Hayes Senior Fellow in Engineering and Applied Physics, 1976), Wisconsin–Madison (Mathematics Research Center, 1982), and several Japanese universities. He was also president of the .JSS Research Series in Statistics
,
Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...
.
Additionally, he served as a Member of the
Science Council of Japan The Science Council of Japan (SCJ) is a representative organization of Japanese scholars and scientists in all fields of sciences, including humanities, social sciences, life sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. , president of Toyohashi T ...
. Akaike died of pneumonia. His obituary in the ''
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society The ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of statistics. It comprises three series and is published by Wiley for the Royal Statistical Society. History The Statistical Society of London was founde ...
'' describes him as being "a most gentle person of great intellect, integrity and generosity".


Awards, honors, and related

In 1989, Akaike was awarded the
Asahi Prize The , established in 1929, is an award presented by the Japanese newspaper ''Asahi Shimbun'' and Asahi Shimbun Foundation to honor individuals and groups that have made outstanding accomplishments in the fields of arts and academics and have greatl ...
and the Purple Ribbon Medal. In 1996, he was the recipient of the first Japan Statistical Society Prize. In 2000, he was awarded the Gold and Silver Star of the
Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest tw ...
. In 2006, Akaike was awarded the
Kyoto Prize The is Japan's highest private award for lifetime achievement in the arts and sciences. It is given not only to those that are top representatives of their own respective fields, but to "those who have contributed significantly to the scientific, ...
; the official citation states that the Prize was for his "Major contribution to statistical science and modeling with the development of the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC)". Akaike was a Fellow at several scientific associations:
American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest continuous ...
,
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...
,
Institute of Mathematical Statistics The Institute of Mathematical Statistics is an international professional and scholarly society devoted to the development, dissemination, and application of statistics and probability. The Institute currently has about 4,000 members in all parts ...
,
Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...
, and others.. The Akaike Memorial Lecture was founded to honor Akaike's legacy. The Lecture is biennial, and is sponsored jointly by the Institute of Statistical Mathematics and the Japan Statistical Society.. On 5 November 2017,
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commemorated his 90th birthday.


Interviews

*. *. *
Message from Hirotugu Akaike - The 2006 Kyoto Prize Winner
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...
video, recorded on November 11, 2006.


Publications


Articles

A list of Akaike's research articles (and similar publications) is available on the Hirotugu Akaike Memorial Website, at the
Institute of Statistical Mathematics An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...
. The list comprises 119 English articles and 52 Japanese articles. What follows here is a selection of English articles. (Many articles in what follows are also in the book ''Selected Papers of Hirotugu Akaike''..) *. *. *; republished in . *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *Akaike, H. (1980). "Likelihood and the Bayes procedure (with discussion)". J. M. Bernardo, M. H. DeGroot, D. V. Lindley, and A. F. M. Smith (eds.)
Bayesian Statistics
', 143–203. Valencia, Spain: University Press. *. *Akaike, H. (1981). "Modern development of statistical methods". P. Eykhoff (ed.) ''Trends and Progress in System Identification'', 169–184.
Pergamon Press Pergamon Press was an Oxford-based publishing house, founded by Paul Rosbaud and Robert Maxwell, that published scientific and medical books and journals. Originally called Butterworth-Springer, it is now an imprint of Elsevier. History The c ...
. *Akaike, H. (1983). "Statistical inference and measurement of entropy". G. E. P. Box, T. Leonard, and C.-F. Wu (eds.) ''Scientific Inference, Data Analysis, and Robustness'', 165–189.
Academic Press Academic Press (AP) is an academic book publisher founded in 1941. It was acquired by Harcourt, Brace & World in 1969. Reed Elsevier bought Harcourt in 2000, and Academic Press is now an imprint of Elsevier. Academic Press publishes refere ...
. *Akaike, H. (1983). "Information measures and model selection". ''Proceedings of the 44th World Statistics Congress of the
International Statistical Institute The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a professional association of statisticians. It was founded in 1885, although there had been international statistical congresses since 1853. The institute has about 4,000 elected members from gov ...
'', 277–291. *. *Akaike, H. (1985). "Prediction and entropy". A. C. Atkinson, and S. E. Fienberg (eds.) ''A Celebration of Statistics'', 1–24.
Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...
. *. *.


Books

The following list is adapted from a list on the Hirotugu Akaike Memorial Website, at the
Institute of Statistical Mathematics An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...
.Books
, Hirotugu Akaike Memorial Website (
Institute of Statistical Mathematics An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...
).
* ''Akaike Information Criterion AIC - Modeling / Prediction / Knowledge-Discovery'' (written in Japanese)
Co-authored with S. Amari, G. Kitagawa, S. Abashima, and H. Simodaira, and with K. Murota and T.i Tsuchiya (Eds.), Tokyo: Kyoritsu Shuppan (2007). * ''The Practice of Time Series Analysis''
H. Akaike and G. Kitagawa (Eds.), Springer-Verlag (1999). * ''Practice of Time Series Analysis II'' (written in Japanese)
H. Akaike and G. Kitagawa (Eds.), Asakura Publishing Co. (1995). * ''Time Series Theory'' (written in Japanese)
coauthored with T. Ozaki, The Society for the Promotion of The University of the Air (1988). * ''Statistical Analysis and Control of Dynamic Systems'' (translation of 1972 book)
coauthored with T. Nakagawa, Kluwer Academic Publishers (1988). * ''Statistics in Science'' (written in Japanese)
coauthored with T. Matsuda, M. Oda, K. Nomoto, E. Matsunaga Kodansha Ltd. (1987). * ''Statistical Special Theory'' (written in Japanese)
coauthored with C. Hayashi and T. Suzuki, The Society for the Promotion of The University of the Air (1986). * ''Probability and Statistics'' (written in Japanese)
coauthored with C. Hayashi, The Society for the Promotion of The University of the Air (1985). * ''Statistical Analysis and Control of Dynamic Systems'' (written in Japanese)
coauthored with T. Nakagawa, Science Co. (1972). * ''Idea Concerning Public Opinion'' (written in Japanese)
coauthored with M. Royama, New Japan Educational Association (1955). * ''Contemporary Society and Mass Communication'' (written in Japanese)
Mass Communication Course Vol.5 (coauthored with R. Hidaka), Kawade Shobo Publishers (1955).


References


Further reading

* ; text available as
Technical Report #177
' (Department of Statistics,
Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...
). * . *


External links


Hirotugu Akaike , 2006 Laureate
 —official web page for Akaike's
Kyoto Prize The is Japan's highest private award for lifetime achievement in the arts and sciences. It is given not only to those that are top representatives of their own respective fields, but to "those who have contributed significantly to the scientific, ...

Hirotugu Akaike Memorial Website
 —at the
Institute of Statistical Mathematics An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akaike Hirotugu 1927 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Japanese mathematicians 21st-century Japanese mathematicians Fellow Members of the IEEE Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Fellows of the Royal Statistical Society Japanese statisticians Kyoto laureates in Basic Sciences People from Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 2nd class University of Tokyo alumni