Nationality American Fields Statistician Role Professor | Name David Blackwell Doctoral advisor Joseph Leo Doob | |
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Born April 24, 1919
Centralia, Illinois,
United States ( 1919-04-24 ) Institutions University of California, Berkeley Alma mater University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Notable students Roger J-B Wets
Richard S. Bucy Known for Rao–Blackwell theorem
Blackwell channel
Blackwell's approachability theory
Arbitrarily varying channel
Games of imperfect information
Dirichlet distribution
Mathematical economics
Recursive economics
Sequential analysis
Optimal searching in boxes Died July 8, 2010, Berkeley, California, United States Education University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Awards R. A. Fisher Lectureship, National Medal of Science for Mathematics and Computer Science Books Fiddle Time Joggers, Fiddle Time Runners, Theory of games and statistical, String Time Joggers Cello Boo, Clamped Similar People Joseph L Doob, Roger J‑B Wets, George Dantzig | ||
Remembering david blackwell
David Harold Blackwell (April 24, 1919 – July 8, 2010) was Professor Emeritus of Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley, and is one of the eponyms of the Rao–Blackwell theorem. Born in Centralia, Illinois, he was the first African American inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, and the first black tenured faculty member at UC Berkeley.
Contents
- Remembering david blackwell
- David blackwell
- Childhood
- At the University of Illinois and the Institute for Advanced Study
- Career
- Death
- Quotation
- Honors and awards
- References
David blackwell
Childhood
David Harold Blackwell was born on April 24, 1919, in Centralia, Illinois, to a full-time homemaker and an Illinois Central Railroad worker. David Blackwell got his mathematical abilities from his paternal grandfather, a schoolteacher in Tennessee. Growing up in an integrated community, Blackwell attended “mixed” schools, where he distinguished himself in mathematics. During elementary school, his teachers promoted him beyond his grade level on two occasions. It was in a high school geometry course, however, that he started his passion for math. In fact, as an exceptional student, David Blackwell graduated high school at the early age of sixteen.
At the University of Illinois and the Institute for Advanced Study
Blackwell entered the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with the intent to study elementary school mathematics. In 1938 he earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in 1939, and was awarded a PhD in mathematics in 1941 at the age of 22, all by the University of Illinois.
He did a year of post-doctoral studies as a fellow at Institute for Advanced Study in 1941–42. At the Institute, he met John von Neumann and von Neumann asked Blackwell to discuss his Ph.D. thesis with him. Blackwell, who believed that von Neumann was just being polite and not genuinely interested in his work, did not approach him until von Neumann himself asked him again a few months later. According to Blackwell on this meeting, "He (von Neumann) listened to me talk about this rather obscure subject and in ten minutes he knew more about it than I did." He departed when he was prevented from attending lectures or undertaking research at nearby Princeton University (which the IAS has historically collaborated with in research and scholarship activities) because of his race.
Career
Seeking a permanent position, he wrote letters of application to 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities; he felt at the time that a black teacher would be limited to teaching only at black colleges. He also sought a position at the University of California, Berkeley, and was interviewed by statistician Jerzy Neyman. While Neyman supported his appointment, race-based objections prevented his appointment at that time. He was offered a post at Southern University at Baton Rouge, which he held in 1942–43, followed by a year as an Instructor at Clark College in Atlanta. He then moved to Howard University in 1944 and within three years was appointed full professor and head of the Mathematics Department. He remained at Howard until 1954.
He took a position at University of California Berkeley as a visiting professor in 1954, and was hired by UC Berkeley as a full professor in the newly created Statistics Department in 1955, becoming the Statistics department chair in 1956. He spent the rest of his career at UC Berkeley, retiring in 1988.
Blackwell was also a pioneer in textbook writing and game theory. Blackwell wrote one of the first Bayesian textbooks, his 1969 Basic Statistics.
Blackwell was also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity (Tau chapter – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).
Death
David Blackwell died of complications from a stroke on July 08, 2010 at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley, California.
Quotation
I've worked in so many areas—I'm sort of a dilettante. Basically, I'm not interested in doing research and I never have been. I'm interested in understanding, which is quite a different thing. And often to understand something you have to work it out yourself because no one else has done it. — David Blackwell
Don't worry about the overall importance of the problem; work on it if it looks interesting. I think there's a sufficient correlation between interest and importance.