Morris Herman DeGroot (June 8, 1931 – November 2, 1989) was an American statistician.

Biography

Born in

Scranton Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, DeGroot graduated from

Roosevelt University Roosevelt University is a private university with campuses in Chicago and Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The unive ...

and earned master's and doctor's degrees from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. DeGroot joined

Carnegie Mellon Carnegie may refer to: People * Carnegie (surname), including a list of people with the name * Clan Carnegie, a lowland Scottish clan Institutions Named for Andrew Carnegie *Carnegie Building (Troy, New York), on the campus of Rensselaer Polyt ...

in 1957 and became a University Professor, the school's highest faculty position. He was the founding editor of the

review journal A review article is an article that summarizes the current state of understanding on a topic within a certain discipline. A review article is generally considered a secondary source since it may analyze and discuss the method and conclusions i ...

Statistical Science ''Statistical Science'' is a review journal published by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. The founding editor was Morris H. DeGroot, who explained the mission of the journal in his 1986 editorial: "A central purpose of ''Statistical Sci ...

''.

Academic works

He wrote six books, edited four volumes and authored over one hundred papers. Most of his research was on the theory of rational decision-making under uncertainty. His ''Optimal Statistical Decisions'', published in 1970, is still recognized as one of the great books in the field. His courses on statistical decision theory taught at Carnegie-Mellon influenced

Edward C. Prescott Edward Christian Prescott (December 26, 1940 – November 6, 2022) was an American economist. He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2004, sharing the award with Finn E. Kydland, "for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: ...

and

Robert Lucas, Jr. Robert Emerson Lucas Jr. (born September 15, 1937) is an American economist at the University of Chicago, where he is currently the John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Economics and the College. Widely regarded as the central ...

, influential figures in the development of

new classical macroeconomics New classical macroeconomics, sometimes simply called new classical economics, is a school of thought in macroeconomics that builds its analysis entirely on a neoclassical economics, neoclassical framework. Specifically, it emphasizes the importa ...

and

real business-cycle theory Real business-cycle theory (RBC theory) is a class of new classical macroeconomics models in which business-cycle fluctuations are accounted for by real (in contrast to nominal) shocks. Unlike other leading theories of the business cycle, RBC th ...

. DeGroot's undergraduate text, ''Probability and Statistics'', published in 1975, is widely recognized as a classic textbook.

Books

* DeGroot, M.H. & M.J. Schervish (2011), ''Probability and Statistics'', 4th Ed, Pearson, * DeGroot, M.H. & M.J. Schervish (2011), ''Student Solutions Manual for Probability and Statistics'', Pearson, * * DeGroot, M.H. (1989), ''Probability and Statistics'', 2nd Ed, Addison-Wesley, * DeGroot, Morris H., ''Optimal Statistical Decisions''. Wiley Classics Library. 2004. (Originally published (1970) by McGraw-Hill.) . * DeGroot, M.H., S.E. Fienberg & J.B. Kadane (1994), ''Statistics and the Law'' (1994), Wiley, *

Awards and honors

DeGroot was elected 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 ...

, 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 ...

, 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 ...

, the

Econometric Society The Econometric Society is an international society of academic economists interested in applying statistical tools to their field. It is an independent organization with no connections to societies of professional mathematicians or statisticians. ...

and the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

. ISBA's DeGroot Prize is named for him.

References

External links

* Fellows of the American Statistical Association American statisticians Fellows of the Econometric Society Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Econometricians American social scientists American business theorists Public administration scholars Carnegie Mellon University faculty Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics 1931 births 1989 deaths Place of death missing Bayesian econometricians 20th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American economists {{US-statistician-stub

Biography

Academic works

Books

Awards and honors

See also

References

Further reading

External links