Theodore Wilbur Anderson (June 5, 1918 – September 17, 2016) was an American mathematician and
statistician who specialized in the analysis of
multivariate data.
He was born in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was on the faculty of
Columbia University from 1946 until moving to
Stanford University in 1967, becoming Emeritus Professor in 1988. He served as Editor of ''
Annals of Mathematical Statistics
The ''Annals of Mathematical Statistics'' was a peer-reviewed statistics journal published by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics from 1930 to 1972. It was superseded by the ''Annals of Statistics'' and the ''Annals of Probability''. In 1938, ...
'' from 1950 to 1952. He was elected President 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 ...
in 1962.
Anderson's 1958
textbook,'' An Introduction to Multivariate Analysis'', educated a generation of theorists and applied statisticians; it was "the classic" in the area until the book by Mardia, Kent and Bibb
Anderson's book emphasizes
hypothesis testing via
likelihood ratio tests and the properties of
power functions:
Admissibility
Admissibility may refer to: Law
* Admissible evidence, evidence which may be introduced in a court of law
* Admissibility (ECHR), whether a case will be considered in the European Convention on Human Rights system Mathematics and logic
* Admissible ...
,
unbiasedness and
monotonicity.
Anderson is also known for
Anderson–Darling test of whether there is evidence that a given sample of data did not arise from a given probability distribution.
He also framed the
Anderson–Bahadur algorithm along with
Raghu Raj Bahadur
Raghu Raj Bahadur (30 April 1924 – 7 June 1997) was an Indian statistician considered by peers to be "one of the architects of the modern theory of mathematical statistics".
Biography
Bahadur was born in Delhi, India, and received his BA ...
, which is used in statistics and engineering for solving binary classification problems when the underlying data have
multivariate normal distributions with different
covariance matrices.
Awards and honors
He was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship in 1946.
In 1949 he was elected a
Fellow of the American Statistical Association
Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...
.
He was elected a 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 ...
in 1974.
He was a member of the
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway.
History
The Royal Frederick Univer ...
.
Anderson died in September 2016 at the age of 98 in Stanford, California after experiencing heart problems.
[ ]
Selected bibliography
Books
*
Chapters in books
*
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Theodore
1918 births
2016 deaths
Scientists from Minneapolis
Columbia University faculty
Stanford University Department of Statistics faculty
Stanford University Department of Economics faculty
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the American Statistical Association
Fellows of the Econometric Society
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Presidents of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Economists from Minnesota
Mathematical statisticians