Ingram Olkin (July 23, 1924 – April 28, 2016) was a professor emeritus and chair of

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...

and education at

Stanford University 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 ...

and the

Stanford Graduate School of Education The Stanford Graduate School of Education (also known as Stanford GSE, or GSE) is one of the seven schools of Stanford University, and is one of the top education schools in the United States. It was founded in 1891 and offers master's and doc ...

. He is known for developing statistical analysis for evaluating policies, particularly in education, and for his contributions to

meta-analysis A meta-analysis is a statistical analysis that combines the results of multiple scientific studies. Meta-analyses can be performed when there are multiple scientific studies addressing the same question, with each individual study reporting me ...

statistics education Statistics education is the practice of teaching and learning of statistics, along with the associated scholarly research. Statistics is both a formal science and a practical theory of scientific inquiry, and both aspects are considered in sta ...

multivariate analysis Multivariate statistics is a subdivision of statistics encompassing the simultaneous observation and analysis of more than one outcome variable. Multivariate statistics concerns understanding the different aims and background of each of the dif ...

, and

majorization In mathematics, majorization is a preorder on vectors of real numbers. Let ^_,\ i=1,\,\ldots,\,n denote the i-th largest element of the vector \mathbf\in\mathbb^n. Given \mathbf,\ \mathbf \in \mathbb^n, we say that \mathbf weakly majorizes (or ...

theory.

Biography

Olkin was born in 1924 in

Waterbury, Connecticut Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River, southwest of Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury is the second-largest city in New Haven County, Connecticut. According to the 2020 US Census, in 20 ...

. He received a B.S. in mathematics at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

, an M.A. from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and his Ph.D. from the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

. Olkin also studied with Harold Hotelling. Olkin's advisor was

S. N. Roy Samarendra Nath Roy (11 December 1906 – 23 July 1964) was an Indian-born American mathematician and an applied statistician. Early life Roy was the first of three children of Kali Nath Roy and Suniti Bala Roy. His father, was a freedom fi ...

and his Ph.D. thesis was "On distribution problems in multivariate analysis" submitted in 1951. Olkin died from complications of

colorectal cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel m ...

at his home in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

on April 28, 2016, aged 91.

A spokesperson for the statistics profession: Honors and awards

Olkin was awarded the fourth biennial Elizabeth Scott Award in 1998 from the

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 continuousl ...

for his achievements in supporting women in statistics. Of the 14 recipients thus far, he is the only man. In 1962 he was elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

.View/Search Fellows of the ASA
accessed 2016-07-23. In 1984, he was President of the

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 o ...

. Olkin is a Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Lady Davis Fellow, with an honorary doctorate from

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was tak ...

Publications and editing

Olkin has written many books including ''Statistical methods for meta-analysis'', ''Probability theory'', and ''Education in a Research University''. Olkin's coauthors include S. S. Shrikhande and Larry V. Hedges. Olkin has written two books with Albert W. Marshall, ''Inequalities: Theory of

Majorization In mathematics, majorization is a preorder on vectors of real numbers. Let ^_,\ i=1,\,\ldots,\,n denote the i-th largest element of the vector \mathbf\in\mathbb^n. Given \mathbf,\ \mathbf \in \mathbb^n, we say that \mathbf weakly majorizes (or ...

and its Applications'' (1979) and '' Life distributions: Structure of nonparametric, semiparametric, and parametric families'' (2007). In

nonparametric statistics Nonparametric statistics is the branch of statistics that is not based solely on parametrized families of probability distributions (common examples of parameters are the mean and variance). Nonparametric statistics is based on either being distr ...

and

decision theory Decision theory (or the theory of choice; not to be confused with choice theory) is a branch of applied probability theory concerned with the theory of making decisions based on assigning probabilities to various factors and assigning numerical ...

, Olkin wrote ''Selecting and ordering populations: A new statistical methodology'' with Jean Dickinson Gibbons and Milton Sobel (1977, 1999). Ingram was Editor of the ''Annals of Mathematical Statistics'' and served as the first editor of the ''

Annals of Statistics The ''Annals of Statistics'' is a peer-reviewed statistics journal published by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. It was started in 1973 as a continuation in part of the '' Annals of Mathematical Statistics (1930)'', which was split into th ...

,'' both published by the

. He was a primary force in the founding of the ''

Journal of Educational Statistics The ''Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the American Educational Research Association and American Statistical Association. It covers statistical m ...

,'' which is published with the

. Olkin was also an editor with the mathematics journal, ''Linear Algebra and its Applications'', and has been active in supporting a series of international conferences on

matrix theory In mathematics, a matrix (plural matrices) is a rectangular array or table of numbers, symbols, or expressions, arranged in rows and columns, which is used to represent a mathematical object or a property of such an object. For example, \begi ...

linear algebra Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning linear equations such as: :a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n=b, linear maps such as: :(x_1, \ldots, x_n) \mapsto a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n, and their representations in vector spaces and through matrices. ...

, and

Bibliography

* * * * ''Inequalities: Theory of Majorization and Its Applications'' (2011) Albert W. Marshall, Ingram Olkin, Barry Arnold, Springer, * ''Inequalities: Theory of Majorization and Its Applications'' (1979) Albert W. Marshall, Ingram Olkin, Academic Press, * "A Guide to Probability Theory and Application" (1973), with L. Gleser and C. Derman, Holt, Rinehart and Winston. * "Probability Models and Application" (1994), with L. Gleser and C. Derman, Prentice Hall.
A tribute to Marshall and Olkin's book "Inequalities: Theory of Majorization and its Applications"

References

Ingram from Stanford University
*
Ingram Olkin

Biography

A spokesperson for the statistics profession: Honors and awards

Publications and editing

Bibliography

References

See also