Herman Chernoff
Template:Short description Template:Infobox scientist
Herman Chernoff (born July 1, 1923) is an American applied mathematician, statistician and physicist. He was formerly a professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Stanford, and MIT, currently emeritus at Harvard University.<ref> Template:Cite journal </ref>Template:R
Early life and education
Herman Chernoff's parents were Pauline and Max Chernoff, Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. He studied at Townsend Harris High School<ref name=mactutor>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and earned a B.S. in mathematics from the City College of New York in 1943.<ref name=mit>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He attended graduate school at Brown University, earning an M.Sc. in applied mathematics in 1945, and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics in 1948 under the supervision of Abraham Wald.Template:R<ref name=mathgen>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Recognition
Chernoff became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1974,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1980.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1987, he was selected for the Wilks Memorial Award by the American Statistical Association,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and in 2012, he was made an inaugural fellow of the American Mathematical Society.<ref>List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, retrieved 2012-11-10</ref>
Personal life
Herman Chernoff's met his future wife, Judith, when they were both graduate students at Brown University in 1945, and married her in 1947.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She died at the age of 98 on June 9, 2023.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At the time of her death they were believed to be the oldest couple living in Massachusetts.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Chernoff turned 100 on July 1, 2023.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See also
- Chernoff bound (also known as Chernoff's inequality)
- Chernoff face
- Chernoff's distribution
References
<references/>
External links
- 1923 births
- 20th-century American Jews
- 20th-century American mathematicians
- 20th-century American physicists
- 21st-century American Jews
- 21st-century American mathematicians
- 21st-century American physicists
- Living people
- Mathematicians from New York (state)
- Brown University alumni
- Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
- Fellows of the American Statistical Association
- Harvard University faculty
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- Presidents of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics
- Townsend Harris High School alumni
- American men centenarians
- Jewish American scientists
- American mathematical statisticians
- Jewish centenarians