Jacob Wolfowitz
Jacob Wolfowitz (born March 19, 1910, deceased July 16, 1981) is an American statistician/information theorist. He is also the father of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. Born in Poland, he immigrated with his parents to the United States in 1920. In the mid 1930s, Wolfowitz began his career as high-school mathematics teacher and continued teaching until 1942 when he received his Ph.D. degree in mathematics from New York University. While a part-time graduate student, Wolfowitz met Abraham Wald, with whom he collaborated in numerous joint papers in the field of mathematical statistics. This collaboration continued until Wald's death in an airplane crash in 1950. In 1951 he became professor of Mathematics at Cornell University, where he stayed until 1970. Wolfowitz died of a heart attack in Tampa, Florida, where he was distinguished professor at the University of South Florida.
Wolfowitz' main contributions were in the field of statistical decision theory, non-parametric inference, sequential analysis and information theory.
Bibliography
- J. Kiefer. Jacob Wolfowitz Selected Papers Springer-Verlag,1980.
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