Product Description
Jerzy Neyman received the National Medal of Science "for laying the foundations of modern statistics and devising tests and procedures that have become essential parts of the knowledge of every statistician." Until his death in 1981 at the age of eighty-seven, he was vigorously involved in the concerns and controversies of the day, a teaching professor at the University of California, and the directory of the Berkeley Statistical Laboratory. Neyman was a scientist whose personality and activity were integral parts of his contribution to his science. His career is thus particulary well-suited for the nontechnical scientific life-story which Constance Reid has made her own in such well-received biographies of scientists Hilbert and Courant in Goettingen and New York. She was able to talk extensively with Neyman and to have access to his personal and professional letters and papers. Her book will appeal to the professional statistician as well as to the layman who wo! uld like to learn something of a subject which permeates almost every aspect of modern life.
From the Inside Flap
"A wonderful, remarkable, beautiful productive life of science, full of excitement, yes, adventure, conflicts, stubborness, persistence, dedication, and brilliant success - the life of Jerzy Neyman ... That is the miracle of Constance Reid, who restores him to life, not a mirrored reflection, not a photograph ... but Jerzy Neyman himself ... -perhaps the last of the world-renowned statisticians, combining both mathematical and applied statistics." -- Leo A. Aroian, "Technometrics"
"Constance Reid, well known for her biographies, pursued the awesomely vigorous Neyman during the last three years of his life ..., and wound up knowing more about the great man than he himself did ... Anyone interested, seriously or not, in 20th-century mathematical history will get good value from Constance Reid's book. Neyman was that rare combination, a man of extraordinary talent and also extraordinary temperament. Both talent and temperament are drawn beautifully in this fine biography." -- Bradley Efron, "Science"