Peter Björn Nemenyi (April 14, 1927 – May 20, 2002) was an American

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, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, who worked in statistics and

probability theory Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set ...

. He taught mathematics at a number of American colleges and universities, including Hunter College,

Tougaloo College Tougaloo College is a private historically black college in the Tougaloo area of Jackson, Mississippi. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It was originally established in 1869 by New Yor ...

, Oberlin College,

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

Virginia State College Virginia State University (VSU or Virginia State) is a public historically Black land-grant university in Ettrick, Virginia. Founded on , Virginia State developed as the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of hig ...

and the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

. Several statistical tests, for example the

Nemenyi test In statistics, the Nemenyi test is a post-hoc test intended to find the groups of data that differ after a global statistical test (such as the Friedman test) has rejected the null hypothesis that the performance of the comparisons on the groups ...

, bear his name. He was also a prominent civil-rights activist. He was the son of Paul Nemenyi an eminent fluid and engineering mechanics expert of the twentieth century. His mother was Aranka Heller, poet and scholar, daughter of Bernat Heller, a renowned 'Aggadist, Islamic scholar and folklorist.

Life

Peter Nemenyi was born in Berlin, to which his parents had fled after anti-Jewish laws had been enacted in

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

. His parents separated, and he was brought up in a socialist boarding school operated by the ISK, a German socialist party founded by

Leonard Nelson Leonard Nelson (; ; 11 July 1882 – 29 October 1927), sometimes spelt Leonhard, was a German mathematician, critical philosopher, and socialist. He was part of the neo-Friesian school (named after post-Kantian philosopher Jakob Friedrich Fr ...

. After the rise of

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

, the party was banned in Germany and its property was seized. The school frequently relocated to different European countries, as Nazi strength grew. During the Second World War the adults in the party were interned on the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

and Nemenyi lived in a number of foster homes and youth homes. After the war, Peter moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

to live with his father in

Hanford, Washington Hanford was a small agricultural community in Benton County, Washington, United States. It and White Bluffs were depopulated in 1943 in order to make room for the nuclear production facility known as the Hanford Site. The town was located in what ...

. He was drafted almost immediately and served near

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...

. After military service, he attended

Black Mountain College Black Mountain College was a private liberal arts college in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and several others. The college was ideologically organized around John Dewey's educational ...

under the

G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

. He received his Ph.D. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

with a thesis on ''Distribution-Free Multiple Comparisons'' advised by

John Wilder Tukey John Wilder Tukey (; June 16, 1915 – July 26, 2000) was an American mathematician and statistician, best known for the development of the fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm and box plot. The Tukey range test, the Tukey lambda distributio ...

. Several statistical tests, most notably the

bear his name. Peter Nemenyi is also known as a civil-rights activist in the Deep South. He also worked for the revolutionary government in Nicaragua, which affected his health.oral history by Sheila Michaels, Columbia University and Mississippi State Archives He was an active member of the

Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about ...

in New York, working in Mississippi in 1962, in Jackson, and 1964-5 in Laurel. Nemenyi's father, Paul Nemenyi, was probably the father of 1972

World Chess Champion The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013. The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 matc ...

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 1 ...

. Peter Nemenyi was aware of this, and made efforts to care for the young Fischer after Paul Nemenyi died in 1952.

Publications

* Peter Nemenyi: ''Distribution-free multiple comparisons'', Doctoral Thesis, Princeton University, 1963. * Peter Nemenyi and Sylvia K. Dixon: ''Statistics from Scratch''. Holden-Day Series in Probability and Statistics, 1977.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemenyi, Peter 1927 births 2002 deaths Academics from Berlin Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States American statisticians American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Black Mountain College alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty 20th-century chess players