Oskar Johann Viktor Anderson (russian: Оскар Николаевич Андерсон, translit=Oskar Nikolaevič Anderson; ] – 12 February 1960) was a Russian-German

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

descent. He is best known for his work on

mathematical statistics Mathematical statistics is the application of probability theory, a branch of mathematics, to statistics, as opposed to techniques for collecting statistical data. Specific mathematical techniques which are used for this include mathematical ...

and

econometrics Econometrics is the application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships.M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics," '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8� ...

Life

Anderson was born from a Baltic German family in Minsk (now in

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

), but soon moved to

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering ...

(

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

). His father,

Nikolai Anderson Nikolai Karl Adolf Anderson (24 September (6 October) 1845 in Kulina, Estonia – 9 (22) March 1905 in Narva, Estonia) was a Baltic German philologist who specialized in comparative linguistics of Finno-Ugric languages. Life Anderson was bo ...

, was professor in

Finno-Ugric languages Finno-Ugric ( or ; ''Fenno-Ugric'') or Finno-Ugrian (''Fenno-Ugrian''), is a traditional grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except the Samoyedic languages. Its formerly commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is ...

at the

University of Kazan Kazan (Volga region) Federal University (russian: Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет, tt-Cyrl, Казан (Идел буе) федераль университеты) is a public research uni ...

. His older brothers were the

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

Walter Anderson and the astrophysicist Wilhelm Anderson. Oskar Anderson graduated from

Kazan Gymnasium Kazan Gymnasium was a gymnasium of Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia. It is notable for its alumnus, Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, who graduated from the school in 1807. Other notable alumni include Ivan Shishkin, a Russian landscape artist, and Gavri ...

with a gold medal in 1906. After studying mathematics for one year at the

, he moved to

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

to study

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analy ...

at the

Polytechnic Institute An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of te ...

. From 1907 to 1915, he was Aleksandr Chuprov's student and assistant. In 1912 he married Margarethe Natalie von Hindenburg-Hirtenberg, a granddaughter of who was commemorated in "The Funeral of 'The Universal Man'" in Dostoyevsky's

A Writer's Diary ''A Writer's Diary'' (russian: Дневник писателя; ''Dnevnik pisatelya'') is a collection of non-fiction and fictional writings by Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Д ...

, and started lecturing at a commercial school in

while also studying for a law degree at the University of Saint Petersburg, graduating in 1914. In 1918 he took on a professorship in

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

but he was forced to flee Russia in 1920 due to the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

, first taking a post in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

(

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

) before becoming a professor at the University of Economics at Varna (

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Mac ...

) in 1924. Anderson was one of the charter members of 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. ...

, whose members also elected him to be a fellow of the society in 1933. In the same year he also received a fellowship from the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Ca ...

. Supported by the foundation, in 1935 he established and became director of the Statistical Institute for Economic Research at the

University of Sofia Sofia University, "St. Kliment Ohridski" at the University of Sofia, ( bg, Софийски университет „Св. Климент Охридски“, ''Sofijski universitet „Sv. Kliment Ohridski“'') is the oldest higher education i ...

. For the remainder of the decade he also served the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide Intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by ...

as an associate member of its Committee of Statistical Experts. In 1942 he joined the Kiel Institute for the World Economy as head of the Department of Eastern Studies and also took up a full professorship of statistics at the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: link=no, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a public research university in the city of Kiel, G ...

, where he was joined by his brother Walter after the end of the second world war. In 1947 he took a position at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: link=no, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of ...

, teaching there until 1956, when he retired.

Writings

* ''Einführung in die Mathematische Statistik'',

Wien en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Springer-Verlag Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 ...

, 1935, * ''Über die repräsentative Methode und deren Anwendung auf die Aufarbeitung der Ergbnisse der bulgarischen landwirtschaftlichen Betriebszählung vom 31. Dezember 1926'', München : , 1949 * ''Die Saisonschwankungen in der deutschen Stromproduktion vor und nach dem Kriege '', München : Inst. f. Wirtschaftsforschung, 1950

External links

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References/Further reading

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Oskar 1887 births 1960 deaths Mathematicians from Kazan Baltic German people from the Russian Empire Mathematicians from the Russian Empire German statisticians Statisticians from the Russian Empire 20th-century German mathematicians Kazan Federal University alumni Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University alumni Saint Petersburg State University alumni University of Kiel faculty Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich faculty Sofia University faculty Academics of the London School of Economics Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the Econometric Society Fellows of the Royal Statistical Society Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Rockefeller Fellows White Russian emigrants to Hungary Hungarian emigrants to Bulgaria Bulgarian emigrants to Germany