Mervin Edgar Muller (1 June 1928 – 3 December 2018) was an American computer scientist and mathematician. The

Box–Muller transform The Box–Muller transform, by George Edward Pelham Box and Mervin Edgar Muller, is a random number sampling method for generating pairs of independent, standard, normally distributed (zero expectation, unit variance) random numbers, given a ...

is named after him.

Biography

Muller was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on 1 June 1928, as one of four sons to parents Emanuel and Bertha Muller. His parents were both immigrants from Hungary. He studied mathematics at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

, earning a Ph.D. in 1954 under the supervision of George William Brown. Muller worked for IBM in New York, and later, fifteen years with the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

in Washington, D. C. He taught at UCLA,

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

Princeton University 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 ...

, George Mason University, and the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

before joining the faculty of

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, where he retired as Robert Critchfield Professor of Engineering. He has three sons with his wife, Barbara McAdam Muller. He died in Columbus, Ohio on 3 December 2018, aged 90.

Honors and awards

He was elected a fellow of 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 ...

in 1975. He was also the founding president of the International Association of Statistical Computing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Mervin E. 1928 births 2018 deaths People from Hollywood, Los Angeles American people of Hungarian descent American computer scientists University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty IBM people World Bank people Cornell University faculty George Mason University faculty Ohio State University faculty Princeton University faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Fellows of the American Statistical Association