Stephen Elliott Fienberg (27 November 1942 – 14 December 2016) was a Professor Emeritus (formerly the Maurice Falk University Professor 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 Social Science) in the Department of Statistics, the

Machine Learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

Department,

Heinz College The Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, often called Heinz College, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is a private graduate college that consists of one of the nation's top-ranked public policy schools� ...

, and Cylab at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

. Fienberg was the founding

co-editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

of the ''

Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application The ''Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Annual Reviews (publisher), Annual Reviews. It releases an annual volume of review articles relevant to the field of statistics. It has been ...

'' and of the '' Journal of Privacy and Confidentiality''.

Early life and education

Born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Fienberg earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

in 1964, a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree in Statistics in 1965, and a Ph.D. in Statistics in 1968 from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

for research supervised by

Frederick Mosteller Charles Frederick Mosteller (December 24, 1916 – July 23, 2006) was an American mathematician, considered one of the most eminent statisticians of the 20th century. He was the founding chairman of Harvard's statistics department from 1957 ...

Career and research

Fienberg was on the Carnegie Mellon University faculty from 1980 and served as Dean of the

Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences The Marianna Brown Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences (Dietrich College) is the liberal and professional studies college and the second-largest academic unit by enrollment (after the Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering) at Ca ...

. He became a U.S. citizen in 1998. Fienberg was one of the foremost social statisticians in the world, and was well known for his work in

log-linear model A log-linear model is a mathematical model that takes the form of a function whose logarithm equals a linear combination of the parameters of the model, which makes it possible to apply (possibly multivariate) linear regression. That is, it has ...

ing for

categorical data In statistics, a categorical variable (also called qualitative variable) is a variable that can take on one of a limited, and usually fixed, number of possible values, assigning each individual or other unit of observation to a particular group or ...

, the statistical analysis of network data, and methodology for disclosure limitation. He was also an expert on forensic science, the only statistician to serve on the National Commission on Forensic Science. He authored more than 400 publications, including six books, advised more than 30 Ph.D. students, and could claim more than 105 descendants in his mathematical genealogy. His publications included books on

categorical data analysis This a list of statistical procedures which can be used for the analysis of categorical data, also known as data on the nominal scale and as categorical variables. General tests * Bowker's test of symmetry * Categorical distribution, general mode ...

, US census adjustment, and forensic science. He was a founder and editor-in-chief of the ''Journal of Privacy and Confidentiality''. and of the ''

''.

Awards and honors

Fienberg was an elected member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, an elected fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

, an elected fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, a fellow of 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 ...

, 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 ...

and a fellow 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 ...

. He was a recipient of the

Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies The Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) comprises the presidents, past presidents and presidents -elect of the following, primarily Northern American, professional societies of statisticians: * American Statistical Association * ...

(COPSS) Presidents' Award in 1982. In 2002, Fienberg received the Samuel S. Wilks Award from the

for his distinguished career in statistics. He received the inaugural

Statistical Society of Canada The Statistical Society of Canada (SSC) (french: Société statistique du Canada) is a professional organization whose mission is to promote the use and development of statistics and probability. Its objectives are * to make the general public aw ...

's Lise Manchester Award in 2008 in recognition of his application of statistics to problems of public interest. In 2015, he received the Jerome Sacks Award for Cross-Disciplinary Research from the National Institute of Statistical Sciences, and the

R. A. Fisher Lectureship The COPSS Distinguished Achievement Award and Lectureship (formerly known as R. A. Fisher Award and Lectureship) is a very high recognition of achievement and scholarship in statistical science that recognizes the highly significant impact of stat ...

from COPSS in 2015. He was awarded the Zellner Medal by the

International Society for Bayesian Analysis The International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA) is a society with the goal of promoting Bayesian analysis for solving problems in the sciences and government. It was formally incorporated as a not for profit corporation by economist Arnold ...

(ISBA) in 2016.

Selected publications

* Bishop, Y. M. M., Fienberg, S. E. and Holland, P. W. (1975). Discrete Multivariate Analysis: Theory and Practice. M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, MA. Paperback edition (1977). A Citation Classic
Reprinted, by Springer-Verlag, New York (2007)
* Fienberg, S. E. and Hinkley, D. V., eds. (1980). R. A. Fisher: An Appreciation. Springer-Verlag, NY. 1st reprint 1989
2nd reprint by Springer-Verlag, NY (2012)
* Fienberg, S. E. (1980). The Analysis of Cross-classified Categorical Data. 2nd Edition. M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, MA. A Citation Classic
Reprinted, by Springer-Verlag, New York (2007)
* DeGroot, M. H., Fienberg, S. E., and Kadane, J. B., eds. (1986). Statistics and the Law. Wiley, New York. Wiley Classics Paperback edition (1994). * Goldenberg, A., Zheng, A. X., Fienberg, S. E. and Airoldi, E. M. (2010

Now Publishers Inc.

Personal life

Stephen Fienberg was married to Joyce Fienberg and had two sons, Anthony and Howard, and six grandchildren. He died on 14 December 2016. Joyce Fienberg died on 27 October 2018. She was one of eleven worshippers murdered during the

Pittsburgh synagogue shooting The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting was an antisemitic terrorist attack which took place at the Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The congregation, alo ...

at the Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha synagogue in the

Squirrel Hill Squirrel Hill is a residential neighborhood in the East End of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The city officially divides it into two neighborhoods, Squirrel Hill North and Squirrel Hill South, but it is almost universally treated a ...

neighborhood of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, Pennsylvania.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fienberg, Stephen 1942 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American social scientists American statisticians Fienberg, Stephen Carnegie Mellon University faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Scientists from Toronto Presidents of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Survey methodologists Annual Reviews (publisher) editors