Zbyněk Šidák (24 October 1933 – 12 November 1999) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

mathematician. He is known for developing the

Šidák correction In statistics, the Šidák correction, or Dunn–Šidák correction, is a method used to counteract the problem of multiple comparisons. It is a simple method to control the familywise error rate. When all null hypotheses are true, the method pro ...

Early life and education

Šidák was born and raised in

Golčův Jeníkov Golčův Jeníkov (; german: Goltsch-Jenikau) is a town in Havlíčkův Brod District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,700 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Kobylí Hlava, Nasavrky, Římovice, Sirákovice, ...

. He completed his undergraduate studies in

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 ...

Charles University in Prague Charles University ( cs, Univerzita Karlova, UK; la, Universitas Carolina; german: Karls-Universität), also known as Charles University in Prague or historically as the University of Prague ( la, Universitas Pragensis, links=no), is the oldest an ...

in 1956, received a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in 1961, and a DrSc. in 1973.

Career

Beginning in 1956, and continuing until his death, Šidák was a researcher in the mathematical department of the

Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences The Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Czech: ''Československá akademie věd'', Slovak: ''Česko-slovenská akadémia vied'') was established in 1953 to be the scientific center for Czechoslovakia. It was succeeded by the Czech Academy of Science ...

and spent several years as head of the Department of Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics. During his life, Šidák held posts as a visiting faculty member at the

University of Stockholm Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, soci ...

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

, and others. He also served as chief editor of the scholarly journal ''Applications of Mathematics''. The Šidák correction, a method used to counteract the problem of

multiple comparisons In statistics, the multiple comparisons, multiplicity or multiple testing problem occurs when one considers a set of statistical inferences simultaneously or infers a subset of parameters selected based on the observed values. The more inferences ...

, was credited to a 1967 paper by Šidák.

Personal life

In 1958 Šidák married Krista Štěpničková. They had two sons and a daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sidak, Zbynek Czech statisticians 1933 births 1999 deaths Charles University alumni People from Havlíčkův Brod District