Thomas S. Ferguson
Thomas S. Ferguson | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 14, 1929 Oakland, California, USA |
| Spouse | Beatriz Rossello |
| Children | Chris Ferguson |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Thesis | On the Existence of Linear Regression in Linear Structural Relations (1956) |
| Doctoral advisor | Lucien Le Cam |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Mathematical statistics Game theory |
| Institutions | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Doctoral students | Lynn Kuo |
| Website | www |
Thomas Shelburne Ferguson (born December 14, 1929) is an American mathematician and statistician. He is a professor emeritus of mathematics and statistics at the University of California, Los Angeles.[1]
Education and career
[edit]Ferguson was born in Oakland, California and was raised nearby in Alameda, California. He majored in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, and completed his Ph.D. there in 1956.[1] His dissertation had two separately-titled parts, On Existence of Linear Regression in Linear Structural Relations and A Method of Generating Best Asymptotically Normal Estimates with Application to the Estimation of Bacterial Densities; it was supervised by Lucien Le Cam.[2]
After another year teaching at Berkeley, he moved to the University of California, Los Angeles in 1957.[1]
Contributions
[edit]Ferguson is the author of:
- Mathematical Statistics: A Decision Theoretic Approach (Academic Press, 1967)[3]
- A Course in Large Sample Theory (Chapman & Hall, 1996)[4]
- A Course in Game Theory (World Scientific, 2020)[5]
His research contributions include the analysis of the "big match" zero-sum game with David Blackwell, a result that eventually led to the proof of existence of equilibrium values for limiting average payoff in all stochastic games; the Ferguson distribution on prior probability; Ferguson's Dirichlet process;[1] Ferguson's pairing property in the analysis of misère subtraction games;[1][6] and contributions to the theory of optimal stopping as e.g. co-authored work on Robbins' problem.[1]
Recognition
[edit]Ferguson was named a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 1967,[1] and a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1985. He was given the Belgian International Francqui Chair of Science in 1998. A festschrift in Ferguson's honor edited by F. Thomas Bruss and Lucien Le Cam was published in 2000.[1]
Personal life
[edit]Ferguson married mathematician Beatriz Rossello, and is the father of poker player Chris Ferguson.[1][7] He has coauthored papers with Chris Ferguson on the mathematics of poker and other games of chance.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i Bruss, F. Thomas; Le Cam, Lucien Marie, eds. (2000), "Biography", Game Theory, Optimal Stopping, Probability and Statistics: Papers in Honor of Thomas S. Ferguson, Institute of Mathematical Statistics Lecture Notes, vol. 35, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, ISBN 9780940600485
- ^ Thomas S. Ferguson at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ^ Reviews of Mathematical Statistics:
- Mammitzsch, V., zbMATH, Zbl 0153.47602
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Reinhardt, H. E., Mathematical Reviews, MR 0215390
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Stone, M. (1968), Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General), 131 (2): 232, doi:10.2307/2343847, JSTOR 2343847
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Rogers, Gerald S. (February 1968), Technometrics, 10 (1): 215–216, doi:10.2307/1266244, JSTOR 1266244
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Hollander, Myles (June 1968), Journal of the American Statistical Association, 63 (322): 721–722, doi:10.2307/2284042, JSTOR 2284042
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Miller, David W. (October 1968), Management Science, 15 (2): B113, JSTOR 2628876
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Wijsman, Robert A. (December 1968), The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 39 (6): 2163–2167, doi:10.1214/aoms/1177698055, JSTOR 2239324
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Toutenburg, H. (1970), Biometrische Zeitschrift, 12 (3): 196, doi:10.1002/bimj.19700120322
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
- Mammitzsch, V., zbMATH, Zbl 0153.47602
- ^ Reviews of A Course in Large Sample Theory:
- Guijing, Chen, zbMATH, Zbl 0871.62002
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Dettweiler, E. (1998), "Review", Metrika, 47: 85–86, doi:10.1007/BF02742866, S2CID 189773459
- Biometrics, 54 (1): 398, March 1998, doi:10.2307/2534036, JSTOR 2534036
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
- Guijing, Chen, zbMATH, Zbl 0871.62002
- ^ Ferguson, Thomas S (May 17, 2020). A Course in Game Theory. doi:10.1142/10634. ISBN 978-981-322-734-7. S2CID 229065828.
- ^ Berlekamp, Elwyn R.; Conway, John H.; Guy, Richard K. (2001), "Ferguson's pairing property", Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays, vol. 1 (2nd ed.), A K Peters, p. 96
- ^ Wilkinson, Alec (March 23, 2009), "What would Jesus bet?", The New Yorker
External links
[edit]
- 1929 births
- Living people
- 20th-century American mathematicians
- 21st-century American mathematicians
- American statisticians
- University of California, Berkeley alumni
- University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty
- University of California, Los Angeles alumni
- Fellows of the American Statistical Association
- Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics