:''See

probabilism In theology and philosophy, probabilism (from Latin ''probare'', to test, approve) is an ancient Greek doctrine of Academic skepticism. It holds that in the absence of certainty, plausibility or truth-likeness is the best criterion. The term can a ...

for the followers of such a theory in theology or philosophy''. {{ProbabilityTopicsTOC This list contains only probabilists in the sense of mathematicians specializing in

probability theory Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set ...

. :''This list is incomplete; please add to it.'' *

David Aldous David John Aldous FRS (born 13 July 1952) is a mathematician known for his research on probability theory and its applications, in particular in topics such as exchangeability, weak convergence, Markov chain mixing times, the continuum random ...

(born 1952) * Thomas Bayes (1702–1761) - British mathematician and Presbyterian minister, known for

Bayes' theorem In probability theory and statistics, Bayes' theorem (alternatively Bayes' law or Bayes' rule), named after Thomas Bayes, describes the probability of an event, based on prior knowledge of conditions that might be related to the event. For examp ...

* Gerard Ben-Arous (born 1957) -

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU), and is among the most prestigious mathematics schools and mathematical sciences research cente ...

Itai Benjamini Itai Benjamini is an Israeli mathematician who holds the Renee and Jay Weiss Chair in the Department of Mathematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Benjamini completed his Ph.D. in 1992 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, under the supervi ...

* Jakob Bernoulli (1654–1705) - Switzerland, known for

Bernoulli trials In the theory of probability and statistics, a Bernoulli trial (or binomial trial) is a random experiment with exactly two possible outcomes, "success" and "failure", in which the probability of success is the same every time the experiment is c ...

* Joseph Louis François Bertrand (1822–1900) *

Abram Samoilovitch Besicovitch Abram Samoilovitch Besicovitch (or Besikovitch) (russian: link=no, Абра́м Само́йлович Безико́вич; 23 January 1891 – 2 November 1970) was a Russian mathematician, who worked mainly in England. He was born in Berdyansk ...

(1891–1970) *

Patrick Billingsley Patrick Paul Billingsley (May 3, 1925 – April 22, 2011) was an American mathematician and stage and screen actor, noted for his books in advanced probability theory and statistics. He was born and raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and gradu ...

(1925–2011) *

Erwin Bolthausen Erwin Bolthausen (born 15 October 1945 in Rohr, Aargau) is a Swiss mathematician, specializing in probability theory, statistics, and stochastic models in mathematical physics. Education and career Bolthausen received his doctorate in mathematic ...

(born 1945) *

Carlo Emilio Bonferroni Carlo Emilio Bonferroni (28 January 1892 – 18 August 1960) was an Italian mathematician who worked on probability theory. Biography Bonferroni studied piano and conducting in Turin Conservatory and at University of Turin under Giuseppe Peano ...

(1892–1960) * Émile Borel (1871–1956) * Kai Lai Chung (1917–2009) *

Erhan Cinlar Erhan is a Turkish given of raw Turkic origin, with the combination of word “Er” and “Han”, and is a name for males. It has the meanings "Soldier King, or Soldier Khan'. Er means Soldier and Han means Khan. It is a Turkish name. Given name ...

(born 1941) * Harald Cramér (1893–1985) *

Amir Dembo Amir Dembo (born 25 October 1958, Haifa) is an Israeli-American mathematician, specializing in probability theory. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022. Biography Dembo received his bachelor's degree in electrical ...

(born 1958) *

Persi Diaconis Persi Warren Diaconis (; born January 31, 1945) is an American mathematician of Greek descent and former professional magician. He is the Mary V. Sunseri Professor of Statistics and Mathematics at Stanford University. He is particularly kno ...

(born 1945) *

Joseph Leo Doob Joseph Leo Doob (February 27, 1910 – June 7, 2004) was an American mathematician, specializing in analysis and probability theory. The theory of martingales was developed by Doob. Early life and education Doob was born in Cincinnati, Ohi ...

(1910–2004) *

Lester Dubins Lester Dubins (April 27, 1920 – February 11, 2010) was an American mathematician noted primarily for his research in probability theory. He was a faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley from 1962 through 2004, and in retirem ...

(1920–2010) * Eugene Dynkin (1924–2014) * Robert J. Elliott (born 1940) * Paul Erdős (1913–1996) *

Alison Etheridge Alison Mary Etheridge One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 1964) is Professor of Probability and Head of the Department of Statistics, University of Oxford. Etheridge is a fe ...

(born 1964) * Steve Evans (born 1960) *

William Feller William "Vilim" Feller (July 7, 1906 – January 14, 1970), born Vilibald Srećko Feller, was a Croatian-American mathematician specializing in probability theory. Early life and education Feller was born in Zagreb to Ida Oemichen-Perc, a C ...

(1906–1970) *

Bruno de Finetti Bruno de Finetti (13 June 1906 – 20 July 1985) was an Italian probabilist statistician and actuary, noted for the "operational subjective" conception of probability. The classic exposition of his distinctive theory is the 1937 "La prévision: ...

(1906–1985) - Italian probabilist and statistician * Geoffrey Grimmett (born 1950) * Alice Guionnet (born 1969) *

Ian Hacking Ian MacDougall Hacking (born February 18, 1936) is a Canadian philosopher specializing in the philosophy of science. Throughout his career, he has won numerous awards, such as the Killam Prize for the Humanities and the Balzan Prize, and been a ...

(born 1936) * Paul Halmos (1916–2006) * Joseph Halpern (born 1953) * David Heath (c.1943–2011) * Wassily Hoeffding (1914–1991) * Kiyoshi Itô (1915–2008) * Jean Jacod (1944–) * Edwin Thompson Jaynes (1922–1998) *

Mark Kac Mark Kac ( ; Polish: ''Marek Kac''; August 3, 1914 – October 26, 1984) was a Polish American mathematician. His main interest was probability theory. His question, " Can one hear the shape of a drum?" set off research into spectral theory, the i ...

(1914–1984) *

Olav Kallenberg Olav Kallenberg (born 1939) is a probability theorist known for his work on exchangeable stochastic processes and for his graduate-level textbooks and monographs. Kallenberg is a professor of mathematics at Auburn University in Alabama in the US ...

(born 1939) * Rudolf E. Kálmán (1930–2016) * Samuel Karlin (1924–2007) *

David George Kendall David George Kendall FRS (15 January 1918 – 23 October 2007) was an English statistician and mathematician, known for his work on probability, statistical shape analysis, ley lines and queueing theory. He spent most of his academic ...

(1918–2007) * Richard Kenyon (born 1964) - Yale University *

Harry Kesten Harry Kesten (November 19, 1931 – March 29, 2019) was an American mathematician best known for his work in probability, most notably on random walks on groups and graphs, random matrices, branching processes, and percolation theory. Biog ...

(1931–2019) *

John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...

(1883–1946) - best known for his pioneering work in economics * Aleksandr Khinchin (1894–1959) *

Andrey Kolmogorov Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov ( rus, Андре́й Никола́евич Колмого́ров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ kəlmɐˈɡorəf, a=Ru-Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov.ogg, 25 April 1903 – 20 October 1987) was a Sovi ...

(1903–1987) *

Pierre-Simon Laplace Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (; ; 23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French scholar and polymath whose work was important to the development of engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics, astronomy, and philosophy. He summarized ...

(1749–1827) * Gregory Lawler (born 1955) *

Lucien Le Cam Lucien Marie Le Cam (November 18, 1924 – April 25, 2000) was a mathematician and Statistics, statistician. Biography Le Cam was born November 18, 1924 in Croze, France. His parents were farmers, and unable to afford higher education for him; his ...

(1924–2000) * Jean-François Le Gall (born 1959) * Paul Lévy (1886–1971) * Jarl Waldemar Lindeberg (1876–1932) *

Andrey Markov Andrey Andreyevich Markov, first name also spelled "Andrei", in older works also spelled Markoff) (14 June 1856 – 20 July 1922) was a Russian mathematician best known for his work on stochastic processes. A primary subject of his research lat ...

(1856–1922) * Stefan Mazurkiewicz (1888–1945) *

Henry McKean Henry P. McKean, Jr. (born 1930 in Wenham, Massachusetts) is an American mathematician at the Courant Institute in New York University. He works in various areas of analysis. He obtained his PhD in 1955 from Princeton University under William ...

(born 1930) *

Paul-André Meyer Paul-André Meyer (21 August 1934 – 30 January 2003) was a French mathematician, who played a major role in the development of the general theory of stochastic processes. He worked at the Institut de Recherche Mathématique (IRMA) in Stra ...

(1934–2003) * Richard von Mises (1883–1953) *

Abraham de Moivre Abraham de Moivre FRS (; 26 May 166727 November 1754) was a French mathematician known for de Moivre's formula, a formula that links complex numbers and trigonometry, and for his work on the normal distribution and probability theory. He move ...

(1667–1754) *

Octav Onicescu Octav Onicescu (; August 20, 1892 – August 19, 1983) was a Romanian mathematician and a member of the Romanian Academy. Together with his student, Gheorghe Mihoc, he is considered to be the founder of the Romanian school of probability theory ...

(1892–1983) * K. R. Parthasarathy (born 1936) *

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest m ...

(1623–1662) * Charles E. M. Pearce (1940–2012) *

Judea Pearl Judea Pearl (born September 4, 1936) is an Israeli-American computer scientist and philosopher, best known for championing the probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence and the development of Bayesian networks (see the article on belief ...

(born 1936) *

Yuval Peres Yuval Peres ( he, יובל פרס; born 5 October 1963) is a mathematician known for his research in probability theory, ergodic theory, mathematical analysis, theoretical computer science, and in particular for topics such as fractals and Hausdo ...

(born 1963) * Edwin A. Perkins (born 1953) * Siméon Denis Poisson (1781–1840) * Yuri Vasilevich Prokhorov (1929–2013) * Frank P. Ramsey (1903–1930) *

Alfréd Rényi Alfréd Rényi (20 March 1921 – 1 February 1970) was a Hungarian mathematician known for his work in probability theory, though he also made contributions in combinatorics, graph theory, and number theory. Life Rényi was born in Budapest to ...

(1921–1970) *

Oded Schramm Oded Schramm ( he, עודד שרם; December 10, 1961 – September 1, 2008) was an Israeli-American mathematician known for the invention of the Schramm–Loewner evolution (SLE) and for working at the intersection of conformal field theory ...

(1961–2008) * Romano Scozzafava (born 1935) * Scott Sheffield (born 1973) *

Albert Shiryaev Albert Nikolayevich Shiryaev (russian: Альбе́рт Никола́евич Ширя́ев; born October 12, 1934) is a Soviet and Russian mathematician. He is known for his work in probability theory, statistics and financial mathematics. C ...

(born 1934) * Yakov Sinai (born 1935) * Ray Solomonoff (1926–2009) * Frank Spitzer (1926–1992) * Ruslan L. Stratonovich (1930–1997) *

Daniel W. Stroock Daniel Wyler Stroock (born March 20, 1940) is an American mathematician, a probabilist. He is regarded and revered as one of the fundamental contributors to Malliavin calculus with Shigeo Kusuoka and the theory of diffusion processes with S. R. ...

(born 1940) *

Tibor Szele Tibor Szele ( Debrecen, 21 June 1918 – Szeged, 5 April 1955) Hungarian mathematician, working in combinatorics and abstract algebra. After graduating at the Debrecen University, he became a researcher at the Szeged University in 1946, t ...

(1918–1955) * Alain-Sol Sznitman (born 1955) * Michel Talagrand (born 1952) * Heinrich Emil Timerding (1873–1945) *

Andrei Toom Andrei Leonovich Toom (in Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries * Rossiyane (), Russian ...

(born 1942) *

S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan Sathamangalam Ranga Iyengar Srinivasa Varadhan FRS (born 2 January 1940) is an Indian American mathematician, widely recognised as one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th century. He is known for his fundamental contributions to ...

(born 1940) - 2007

Abel Prize The Abel Prize ( ; no, Abelprisen ) is awarded annually by the King of Norway to one or more outstanding mathematicians. It is named after the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829) and directly modeled after the Nobel Prizes. ...

laureate * Bálint Virág (born 1973) * Wendelin Werner (born 1968) * Norbert Wiener (1894–1964) * David Williams *

Ofer Zeitouni Ofer Zeitouni (עפר זיתוני, born 23 October 1960, Haifa) is an Israeli mathematician, specializing in probability theory. Biography Zeitouni received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1980 from the Technion. He obtaine ...

(born 1960) -

Weizmann Institute The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli u ...

* Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970) - one of the giants among twentieth-century philosophers (best known for confirmation probability) * Harold Jeffreys (1891–1989) - one of the giants within Bayesian statistics school * Richard Jeffrey (1926–2002) - best known for the philosophy of radical probabilism and Jeffrey conditioning * Terence Tao (born 1975) *

Richard M. Dudley Richard Mansfield Dudley (July 28, 1938 – January 19, 2020) was Professor of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Education and career Dudley was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his BA at Harvard College and receive ...

(1938–2020) * William Timothy Gowers (born 1963) * Bálint Tóth (born 1955)

See also