Willem Rutger van Zwet (31 March 1934 – 2 July 2020) was a Dutch mathematical statistician. He was a professor at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

between 1968 and 1999.

Biography

Van Zwet was born on 31 March 1934 in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

. Van Zwet obtained his doctoral degree in 1964 under the supervision of

Jan Hemelrijk Jan Hemelrijk (28 May 1918 – 16 March 2005) was a Dutch mathematician, Professor of Statistics at the University of Amsterdam, and authority in the field of stochastic processes.Jo van Nunen and Jaap van der Wal. "Jaap wessels–his life with s ...

at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

with a thesis titled "Convex Transformations of Random Variables". After that, he worked at the

Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica The (abbr. CWI; English: "National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science") is a research centre in the field of mathematics and theoretical computer science. It is part of the institutes organization of the Dutch Research Cou ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, and became a lector of statistics at

in 1964 and was named professor in 1968. He retired in 1999. From 1992 to 1999, van Zwet was the Director of the Thomas Stieltjes Institute of Mathematics. He co-founded Eurandom in 1997, and served as its director until 2000. From 1997 to 1999, he was also the President of 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 ...

. Van Zwet was 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 ...

and a member of the Academia Europaea since 1990. He received the Humboldt Prize in 2006. He won the

Adolphe Quetelet Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet FRSF or FRSE (; 22 February 1796 – 17 February 1874) was a Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist who founded and directed the Brussels Observatory and was influential in introduc ...

Medal in 1993, and had been a Fellow of the

Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

since 1978. In 1979, he became a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

. In 1996, he was made Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion, and was named Doctoris Honoris causa of

Charles University ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , undergr ...

the following year. He died on 2 July 2020 in

Oegstgeest Oegstgeest () is a town and municipality in the province of South Holland in the western Netherlands. Its population was in . Etymology The portion ''geest'' in the name refers to the geest lands, which were excavated in the seventeenth cent ...

References

1934 births 2020 deaths Dutch statisticians Fellows of the Royal Statistical Society Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Humboldt Research Award recipients Academic staff of Leiden University Members of Academia Europaea Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Leiden University of Amsterdam alumni Annals of Statistics editors Mathematical statisticians {{Netherlands-scientist-stub