Abraham Wald was a mathematician born in Kolozsvár, Hungary (now Cluj, Romania) who contributed to decision theory, geometry, and econometrics, and founded the field of statistical sequential analysis.[1]
Being a religious Jew, he could not attend school on Saturdays, as was required at the time by the Hungarian school system, and was thus home-schooled by his parents until college.[1] Fortunately, his parents were quite knowledgeable and competent as teachers.[2]
In 1927, he entered graduate school at the University of Vienna, from which he graduated in 1931 with a Ph.D. in mathematics. His advisor there was Karl Menger.[1]
When the Nazis invaded Austria in 1938, he and his family were persecuted as Jews. He was able to emigrate to the United States, at the invitation of the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics, to work on econometrics research.[1]
He and his wife died in an airplane crash in the Nilgiri mountains while on an extensive lecture tour at the invitation of the Indian government.[1]
Notable publications
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e Morgenstern, O. (1951). "Abraham Wald, 1902-1950". Econometrica 19 (4): 361–367. doi:10.2307/1907462. Retrieved on 2008-06-27.
- ^ O'Connor, John J. & Robertson, Edmund F., "Abraham Wald", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
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