Peter Björn Nemenyi (April 14, 1927 – May 20, 2002) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

, who worked in

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

and

probability theory Probability theory or probability calculus is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expre ...

. He taught mathematics at a number of American colleges and universities, including

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

Tougaloo College Tougaloo College is a private historically black college in the Tougaloo area of Jackson, Mississippi, United States. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It was established in 1869 by ...

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

Virginia State College Virginia State University (VSU or Virginia State) is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically Black land-grant university, land-grant university in Ettrick, Virginia, United States. Founded on , Vi ...

and the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

. Several statistical tests, for example the Nemenyi test, bear his name. He was also a prominent civil-rights activist. He was the son of

Paul Neményi Paul Felix Neményi (June 5, 1895March 1, 1952) was a Hungarian mathematician and physicist who specialized in continuum mechanics. He was known for using what he called the inverse or semi-inverse approach, which applied vector field analysis, ...

an eminent fluid and engineering mechanics expert of the twentieth century. His mother was Aranka Heller, poet and scholar, daughter of Bernat Heller, a renowned 'Aggadist, Islamic scholar and folklorist.

Life

Peter Nemenyi was born in Berlin, to which his parents had fled after anti-Jewish laws had been enacted in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. His parents separated, and he was brought up in a socialist boarding school operated by the ISK, a German socialist party founded by

Leonard Nelson Leonard Nelson (; ; 11 July 1882 – 29 October 1927), sometimes spelt Leonhard, was a German mathematician, critical philosopher, and socialist. He was part of the neo-Friesian school (named after post-Kantian philosopher Jakob Friedrich Frie ...

. After the rise of

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

, the party was banned in Germany and its property was seized. The school frequently relocated to different European countries, as Nazi strength grew. During the Second World War the adults in the party were interned on the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

and Nemenyi lived in a number of foster homes and youth homes. After the war, Peter moved to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to live with his father in

Hanford, Washington Hanford was a small agricultural community in Benton County, Washington, United States. It and White Bluffs were depopulated in 1943 in order to make room for the nuclear production facility known as the Hanford Site. The town was located i ...

. He was drafted almost immediately and served near

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

. After military service, he attended

Black Mountain College Black Mountain College was a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and several others. The coll ...

under the

G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...

. He received his Ph.D. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

with a thesis on ''Distribution-Free Multiple Comparisons'' advised by

John Wilder Tukey John Wilder Tukey (; June 16, 1915 – July 26, 2000) was an American mathematician and statistician, best known for the development of the fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm and box plot. The Tukey range test, the Tukey lambda distributi ...

. Several statistical tests, most notably the Nemenyi test bear his name. Peter Nemenyi is also known as a civil-rights activist in the Deep South. He also worked for the revolutionary government in Nicaragua, which affected his health.oral history by Sheila Michaels, Columbia University and Mississippi State Archives He was an active member of the

Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about ...

in New York, working in Mississippi in 1962, in Jackson, and 1964-5 in Laurel. Nemenyi's father, Paul Nemenyi, was probably the father of 1972

World Chess Champion The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. ...

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...

. Peter Nemenyi was aware of this, and made efforts to care for the young Fischer after Paul Nemenyi died in 1952.

Publications

* Peter Nemenyi: ''Distribution-free multiple comparisons'', Doctoral Thesis, Princeton University, 1963. * Peter Nemenyi and Sylvia K. Dixon: ''Statistics from Scratch''. Holden-Day Series in Probability and Statistics, 1977.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemenyi, Peter 1927 births 2002 deaths Academics from Berlin Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States American statisticians American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Black Mountain College alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty 20th-century American chess players