Kenneth Levenberg (August 6, 1919 – September 1973) was an American

statistician A statistician is a person who works with Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...

and original author of the widely used

nonlinear least squares Non-linear least squares is the form of least squares analysis used to fit a set of ''m'' observations with a model that is non-linear in ''n'' unknown parameters (''m'' ≥ ''n''). It is used in some forms of nonlinear regression. The ...

fitting algorithm later improved by Donald Marquardt, known as the

Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm In mathematics and computing, the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm (LMA or just LM), also known as the damped least-squares (DLS) method, is used to solve non-linear least squares problems. These minimization problems arise especially in least s ...

. Levenberg first published the algorithm in 1944 while working at the

Frankford Arsenal The Frankford Arsenal is a former United States Army ammunition plant located adjacent to the Bridesburg neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, north of the original course of Frankford Creek. History Opened in 1816 on of lan ...

. He later worked for

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

where he developed mathematical models used to design the

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

. He ended his career in the mathematics department at the

University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo (UH Hilo) is a public university in Hilo, Hawaii, Hilo, Hawaiʻi. It is one of ten campuses of the University of Hawaiʻi system. It was founded as Hilo Center at Lyman Hall of the Hilo Boys School in 1945 and ...

and died in Hawaii in 1973. Levenberg was listed in American Men of Science in 1970.

References

1919 births 1973 deaths American statisticians Place of birth missing University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo faculty {{Statistician-stub