Thomas S. Ferguson

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For the archeologist and Book of Mormon scholar, see Thomas Stuart Ferguson.

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[]

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[]

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]

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][5] and contributions to the theory of optimal stopping as e.g. co-authored work on Robbins' problem.[1]

Recognition[]

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[]

Ferguson married mathematician Beatriz Rossello, and is the father of poker player Chris Ferguson.[1][6] He has coauthored papers with Chris Ferguson on the mathematics of poker and other games of chance.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: 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, 35, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, ISBN 9780940600485
  2. ^ Thomas S. Ferguson at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ^ Reviews of Mathematical Statistics:
    • Mammitzsch, V., zbMATH, Zbl 0153.47602CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Reinhardt, H. E., Mathematical Reviews, MR 0215390CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Stone, M. (1968), Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General), 131 (2): 232, doi:10.2307/2343847, JSTOR 2343847CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Rogers, Gerald S. (February 1968), Technometrics, 10 (1): 215–216, doi:10.2307/1266244, JSTOR 1266244CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Hollander, Myles (June 1968), Journal of the American Statistical Association, 63 (322): 721–722, doi:10.2307/2284042, JSTOR 2284042CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Miller, David W. (October 1968), Management Science, 15 (2): B113, JSTOR 2628876CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Wijsman, Robert A. (December 1968), The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 39 (6): 2163–2167, doi:10.1214/aoms/1177698055, JSTOR 2239324CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Toutenburg, H. (1970), Biometrische Zeitschrift, 12 (3): 196, doi:10.1002/bimj.19700120322CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  4. ^ Reviews of A Course in Large Sample Theory:
  5. ^ Berlekamp, Elwyn R.; Conway, John H.; Guy, Richard K. (2001), "Ferguson's pairing property", Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays, 1 (2nd ed.), A K Peters, p. 96
  6. ^ Wilkinson, Alec (March 23, 2009), "What would Jesus bet?", The New Yorker

External links[]

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