Robert Schlaifer

Robert Schlaifer

Robert O. Schlaifer (13 September 1914 – 24 July 1994) was a pioneer of Bayesian decision theory. At the time of his death he was William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration Emeritus of the Harvard Business School.

Schlaifer had a unique background for a statistical decision theorist. He was trained as a classical historian and classical Greek scholar. During the Second World War he started writing technical reports and produced a major volume on the development of aircraft engines. He got an appointment at the Harvard Business School and when the statistics teacher retired he started to teach statistics--starting by teaching himself. He had very little mathematical background and Raifa recalled how they worked together: "I would teach him something about linear algebra in the morning and he would show me how it could be applied in the afternoon." (from the interview with Fienberg)

Schlaifer made an important contribution to Bayesian decision theory. His work and his character are described in the following appreciations.

In 1992 the Decision Analysis Society awarded Schlaifer the Frank P. Ramsey Medal for distinguished contributions to the field of decision analysis. In making the award Bob Winkler noted Schlaifer's pioneering efforts in decision analysis.:His 1959 book, "Probability and Statistics for Business Decisions", was a landmark effort, coming only five years after L. J. Savage, in his classic "Foundations of Statistics", presented a development of subjective probability and utility but then inexplicably reverted to minimax arguments in the latter part of the book. Schlaifer, with no formal training in statistics or mathematical modeling, got it right and took the first steps toward bridging the theory/practice gap.

Winkler also quoted the following assessment from Howard Raiffa, who worked with Schlaifer and was the recipient of the first Ramsey Medal in 1984::“The basic ideas of statistical decision theory were conceived by (Schlaifer) independently of the work of L. J. Savage or de Finetti, and early on he saw that those ideas were broadly applicable to problems in decision making under uncertainty. He was a pioneer in the practical assessment of subjective probabilities and utilities… (Schlaifer) influenced my intellectual development more than any other individual — more than Abraham Wald or von Neumann or Savage or Arrow.”

In the preface to the second 1971 edition of "Foundations of Statistics" Savage wrote:This is a welcome opportunity to say that his [Schlaifer's] ideas were developed wholly independently of the present book, and indeed of other personalistic literature. They are in full harmony with the ideas of this book but are more down to earth and less spellbound by tradition.

Schlaifer's book with John W. Pratt and Raiffa was published posthumously and his co-authors wrote this dedication::Robert O. Schlaifer (1915 – 1994): An original, deep, creative, indefatigable, persistent, versatile, demanding, sometimes irascible scholar, who was an inspiration to us both.

ome publications of Robert Schlaifer

* Greek Theories of Slavery from Homer to Aristotle, "Harvard Studies in Classical Philology," Vol. 47 (1936), pp. 165-204.
* Demon of Paeania, Priest of Asclepius, "Classical Philology," Vol. 38, No. 1 (Jan., 1943), pp. 39-43.
* "Development of Aircraft Engines." Boston : Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, 1950.
*"Probability and statistics for business decisions. An introduction to managerial economics under uncertainty" New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1959
*"Applied statistical decision theory" (with Howard Raiffa) Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1961.
*"Introduction to statistical decision theory" John W. Pratt, Howard Raiffa, Robert Schlaifer preliminary edition, 1965. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1995.

External links

The award of the Frank P. Ramsey Medal of the Decision Analysis Society is described in the newsletter

* [http://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/daweb/news9208.htm August 1992 Newsletter]

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E5DD1F3EF93BA15754C0A962958260 New York Times obituary]

* [http://www.imstat.org/sts/future_papers.html Stephen E. Fienberg "The Early Statistical Years: 1947-1967. A Conversation With Howard Raiffa" (Papers to appear in "Statisticial Science"). ]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Conjugate prior — Bayesian statistics Theory Bayesian probability Probability interpretations Bayes theorem Bayes rule · Bayes factor Bayesian inference Bayesian network Prior · Posterior · Likelihood …   Wikipedia

  • List of statisticians — Statisticians or people who made notable contributions to the theories of statistics, or related aspects of probability, or machine learning. NOTOC CompactTOC8 side = yes seealso = yes nobreak = yes extlinks = yes x = A * Odd Olai Aalen (1947 ) * …   Wikipedia

  • operations research — the analysis, usually involving mathematical treatment, of a process, problem, or operation to determine its purpose and effectiveness and to gain maximum efficiency. [1940 45, Amer.] * * * Application of scientific methods to management and… …   Universalium

  • statistics — /steuh tis tiks/, n. 1. (used with a sing. v.) the science that deals with the collection, classification, analysis, and interpretation of numerical facts or data, and that, by use of mathematical theories of probability, imposes order and… …   Universalium

  • Howard Raiffa — (1924 ndash; IPAEng|ˈreɪfə) is the Frank P. Ramsey Professor (Emeritus) of Managerial Economics, a joint chair held by the Business School and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is an influential Bayesian decision theorist …   Wikipedia

  • List of mathematicians (S) — NOTOC S * S., Shrikhande S. (India, 1917 ) * Saari, Donald G. (USA, 1940 ) * Saaty, Thomas L. (USA, 1926 ) * Sabur, Alia (USA, 1989 ) * Saccheri, Giovanni Girolamo (Italy, 1667 1733) * Sachs, Gunter (Germany, 1932 ) * Sachs, Horst (USA, 1927 ) *… …   Wikipedia

  • Decision analysis — (DA) is the discipline comprising the philosophy, theory, methodology, and professional practice necessary to address important decisions in a formal manner. Decision analysis includes many procedures, methods, and tools for identifying, clearly… …   Wikipedia

  • Dorothea Dix — This article is about the 19th century activist. For the journalist, see Dorothy Dix. Dorothea Lynde Dix …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”