Louis Guttman

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Louis Guttman

Louis (Eliyahu) Guttman (; 1916 – 1987) was founder and Scientific Director of the Israel Institute of Applied Social Research, later renamed the Guttman Institute, and Professor

Professor

The meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the Academic department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual....
of Social and Psychological Assessment at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel's oldest university.The First Board of Governors included Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, and Chaim Weizmann....
. Born in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, Guttman later emigrated to Palestine with his wife Ruth in 1947.

Guttman was described as a brilliant innovator who "saw theory in method and method in theory", was "informed by high sophistication in mathematics, statistics, sociology and psychology", and one who "made a major contribution to democratic policy-making in the new state" and “was concerned with the 'well-being' of individuals, groups and society" (from a posthumous award ceremony by the World Association of Public Opinion Research, 1988).

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Encyclopedia

Louis (Eliyahu) Guttman (; 1916 – 1987) was founder and Scientific Director of the Israel Institute of Applied Social Research, later renamed the Guttman Institute, and Professor

Professor

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

United States

Multidimensional scaling

Multidimensional scaling is a set of related statistical techniques often used in information visualization for exploring similarities or dissimilarities in data....
and Facet Theory. His earlier work in scaling analysis produced what has been called the Guttman scale
Guttman scale

In statistical surveys conducted by means of structured interviews or questionnaires, a subset of the survey items having binary answers forms a Guttman scale if they can be ranked in some order so that, for a rational respondent, the response pattern can be captured by a single index on that ordered scale....
.

Early Life and Education

Guttman was born in New York City

New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
on February 10, 1916 and grew up in the Jewish community of Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis is the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Hennepin County, Minnesota. The city lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, Minnesota, the state's Capital ....
.

Guttman received both his undergraduate (BA, 1936) and graduate training (MA, 1939) at the University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public university research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, Minnesota, United States....
, earning his doctorate in social and psychological measurement in 1942. From 1941 to 1947 Guttman was professor of sociology at Cornell University, while as part of the World War II effort, he also served as an Expert Consultant to the US Army’s Research Branch. His innovative methodological work on attitudes was published in the 4th volume of The American Soldier.

Death

Guttman died on October 25, 1987, while on sabbatical in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with just over five million residents....
, in the United States

United States

Publications

Guttman published in numerous journals and books, including over 300 pages in Psychometrika

Psychometrika

The Psychometric Society is an international nonprofit professional organization devoted to the advancement of quantitative measurement practices in psychology, education, and the social sciences....
. Many of his papers are still quoted in the scientific literature as being relevant and important to current statistical and mathematical advances. Scale analysis, Facet theory and his mathematical and philosophical treatments of Factor analysis are among the important parts of his scientific legacy. Notably, Guttman first proved several fundamental theorems in matrix algebra, as discussed in papers by Hubert, Meulman and Heiser (2000) and Takane and Yanai (2005). Several of Guttman’s contributions have been incorporated into computer packages, among them Smallest Space Analysis (SSA) and Partial Order Scalogram Analysis (POSAC).

Honors and Awards

Member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities

The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, based in Jerusalem, was set up in 1961 by the State of Israel to foster contact between scholars from the sciences and humanities in Israel, to advise the government on research projects of national importance, and to promote excellence....
Foreign Honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an organization dedicated to scholarship and the advancement of learning. It serves as a nationwide honor society for the United States....
President, Psychometric Society
1955-1956 Stanford University
Stanford University

Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private university research university located in Stanford, California, California, United States....
: Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
1962 Rothschild Prize
1971 Science
Science (journal)

Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is considered one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals....
: included Guttman in a list of the 62 most important contributors to scientific research in the social sciences since the beginning of the 20th century. * 1974 Regents of the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public university research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, Minnesota, United States....
- Outstanding Achievement Award
1978 Israel Prize
Israel Prize

The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel. It is presented annually, on Yom Ha'atzma'ut, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President of Israel, the Prime Minister of Israel, the Knesset chairperson, and the Supreme Court of Israel president....
in the Social Sciences
Social sciences

The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including anthropology, communication studies, economics, human geography, history, political science, psychology and sociology....
1984 Educational Testing Service Measurement Award from Princeton University
Princeton University

Princeton University is a private university university located in Princeton, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and has the largest per-student Financial endowment in the world....
.