Bradley Efron
Encyclopedia
Bradley Efron is an American statistician best known for proposing the bootstrap resampling technique
, which has had a major impact in the field of statistics
and virtually every area of statistical application. The bootstrap was one of the first computer-intensive statistical techniques, replacing traditional algebra
ic derivations with data-based computer simulations.
n Jewish immigrants Esther and Miles Efron. He attended the California Institute of Technology
, graduating in Mathematics in 1960. He arrived at Stanford in fall of 1960, earning his Ph.D., under the direction of Rupert Miller and Herb Solomon, in the Department of Statistics. While at Stanford, he was suspended for a year for his involvement with the Stanford Chaparral
's parody of Playboy magazine.
He is currently a Professor of Statistics at Stanford. At Stanford he has been the Chair of the Department of Statistics, Associate Dean of Science, Chairman of the University Advisory Board, Chair of the Faculty Senate and Chair of the Undergraduate Program in Applied Mathematics
.
Efron holds the Max H. Stein endowed chair as Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford.
He has made many important contributions to many areas of statistics. Efron's work has spanned both theoretical and applied topics, including empirical Bayes analysis (with Carl Morris
), applications of differential geometry to statistical inference
, the analysis of survival data, and inference for microarray gene expression data. He is the author of a classic monograph, The Jackknife, the Bootstrap and Other Resampling Plans (1982) and has also co-authored (with R. Tibshirani) the text An Introduction to the Bootstrap (1994).
He created a set of nontransitive dice
called Efron's dice.
and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
, fellowship in the Institute of Mathematical Statistics
(IMS) and the American Statistical Association
(ASA), the Wilks Medal, the Parzen Prize, and the Rao Prize, Fisher, Rietz and Wald lecturer.
In 2005, he was awarded the National Medal of Science
, the highest scientific honor by the United States, for his exceptional work in the field of Statistics (especially for his inventing of the bootstrapping methodology). He was presented with the award on May 29, 2007.
Bootstrapping (statistics)
In statistics, bootstrapping is a computer-based method for assigning measures of accuracy to sample estimates . This technique allows estimation of the sample distribution of almost any statistic using only very simple methods...
, which has had a major impact in the field of statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
and virtually every area of statistical application. The bootstrap was one of the first computer-intensive statistical techniques, replacing traditional algebra
Algebra
Algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning the study of the rules of operations and relations, and the constructions and concepts arising from them, including terms, polynomials, equations and algebraic structures...
ic derivations with data-based computer simulations.
Life and career
Efron was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in May 1938, the son of RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Jewish immigrants Esther and Miles Efron. He attended the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
, graduating in Mathematics in 1960. He arrived at Stanford in fall of 1960, earning his Ph.D., under the direction of Rupert Miller and Herb Solomon, in the Department of Statistics. While at Stanford, he was suspended for a year for his involvement with the Stanford Chaparral
Stanford Chaparral
The Stanford Chaparral is a humor magazine published by students of Stanford University since 1899.-History:...
's parody of Playboy magazine.
He is currently a Professor of Statistics at Stanford. At Stanford he has been the Chair of the Department of Statistics, Associate Dean of Science, Chairman of the University Advisory Board, Chair of the Faculty Senate and Chair of the Undergraduate Program in Applied Mathematics
Applied mathematics
Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with mathematical methods that are typically used in science, engineering, business, and industry. Thus, "applied mathematics" is a mathematical science with specialized knowledge...
.
Efron holds the Max H. Stein endowed chair as Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford.
He has made many important contributions to many areas of statistics. Efron's work has spanned both theoretical and applied topics, including empirical Bayes analysis (with Carl Morris
Carl Morris (statistician)
Carl Morris is a professor in the Statistics Department of Harvard University and spent several years as a researcher for the RAND Corporation working on the RAND Health Insurance Experiment.-Chronology:...
), applications of differential geometry to statistical inference
Statistical inference
In statistics, statistical inference is the process of drawing conclusions from data that are subject to random variation, for example, observational errors or sampling variation...
, the analysis of survival data, and inference for microarray gene expression data. He is the author of a classic monograph, The Jackknife, the Bootstrap and Other Resampling Plans (1982) and has also co-authored (with R. Tibshirani) the text An Introduction to the Bootstrap (1994).
He created a set of nontransitive dice
Nontransitive dice
A set of nontransitive dice is a set of dice for which the relation "is more likely to roll a higher number" is not transitive. See also intransitivity....
called Efron's dice.
Awards
He has won many honors, including a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, membership in the National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, fellowship in the Institute of Mathematical Statistics
Institute of Mathematical Statistics
The Institute of Mathematical Statistics is an international professional and scholarly society devoted to the development, dissemination, and application of statistics and probability. The Institute currently has about 4,000 members in all parts of the world...
(IMS) and the American Statistical Association
American Statistical Association
The American Statistical Association , is the main professional US organization for statisticians and related professions. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest, continuously operating professional society in the United States...
(ASA), the Wilks Medal, the Parzen Prize, and the Rao Prize, Fisher, Rietz and Wald lecturer.
In 2005, he was awarded the National Medal of Science
National Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and...
, the highest scientific honor by the United States, for his exceptional work in the field of Statistics (especially for his inventing of the bootstrapping methodology). He was presented with the award on May 29, 2007.
Works
- Efron, B. (1979). "Computer and the theory of statistics: thinking the unthinkable". SIAM Review.
- Efron, B. (1981). "Nonparametric estimates of standard error: The jackknife, the bootstrap and other methods". BiometrikaBiometrika- External links :* . The Internet Archive. 2011....
, 68, 589-599. - Efron, B. (1982). "The jackknife, the bootstrap, and other resampling plans". Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics CBMS-NSF Monographs, 38.
- Diaconis, P.Persi DiaconisPersi Warren Diaconis is an American mathematician and former professional magician. He is the Mary V. Sunseri Professor of Statistics and Mathematics at Stanford University....
& Efron, B. (1983). "Computer-intensive methods in statistics". Scientific AmericanScientific AmericanScientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
, May, 116-130. - Efron, B. (1983). "Estimating the error rate of a prediction rule: improvement on cross-validation". J. Amer. Statist. Assoc.
- Efron, B. (1985). "Bootstrap confidence intervals for a class of parametric problems." BiometrikaBiometrika- External links :* . The Internet Archive. 2011....
. - Efron, B. (1987). "Better bootstrap confidence intervals". J. Amer. Statist. Assoc.
- Efron, B. (1990). "More efficient bootstrap computations". J. Amer. Statist. Assoc.
- Efron, B. (1991). "Regression precentiles using asymmetric squared error loss". Statistica sinica.
- Efron, B. (1992). "Jackknife-after-bootstrap standards errors and influence functions". in Journal of the Royal Statistical SocietyRoyal Statistical SocietyThe Royal Statistical Society is a learned society for statistics and a professional body for statisticians in the UK.-History:It was founded in 1834 as the Statistical Society of London , though a perhaps unrelated London Statistical Society was in existence at least as early as 1824...
- Efron, B., & Tibshirani, R. J. (1993). "An introduction to the bootstrap". New York: Chapman & Hall, software.
See also
- Clinical trials
- Empirical Bayesian
- Fisher, Ronald A.
- Least-angle regressionLeast-angle regressionIn statistics, least-angle regression is a regression algorithm for high-dimensional data, developed by Bradley Efron, Trevor Hastie, Iain Johnstone and Robert Tibshirani....
- Fisher informationFisher informationIn mathematical statistics and information theory, the Fisher information is the variance of the score. In Bayesian statistics, the asymptotic distribution of the posterior mode depends on the Fisher information and not on the prior...
- Hinkley, David V.David V. HinkleyDavid V. Hinkley is a statistician known for his research in statistical models and inference and for his graduate-level books.-Research and graduate textbooks:He earned a PhD from the Imperial College London under the supervision of David R. Cox...
- Likelihood functionLikelihood functionIn statistics, a likelihood function is a function of the parameters of a statistical model, defined as follows: the likelihood of a set of parameter values given some observed outcomes is equal to the probability of those observed outcomes given those parameter values...
- Observed informationObserved informationIn statistics, the observed information, or observed Fisher information, is the negative of the second derivative of the "log-likelihood"...
- Robbins, HerbertHerbert RobbinsHerbert Ellis Robbins was an American mathematician and statistician who did research in topology, measure theory, statistics, and a variety of other fields. He was the co-author, with Richard Courant, of What is Mathematics?, a popularization that is still in print. The Robbins lemma, used in...
- Sequential analysisSequential analysisIn statistics, sequential analysis or sequential hypothesis testing is statistical analysis where the sample size is not fixed in advance. Instead data are evaluated as they are collected, and further sampling is stopped in accordance with a pre-defined stopping rule as soon as significant results...
- Stein, Charles