Nils Lid Hjort (born 12 January 1953) is a Norwegian

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

, who has been a professor of

mathematical statistics Mathematical statistics is the application of probability theory, a branch of mathematics, to statistics, as opposed to techniques for collecting statistical data. Specific mathematical techniques which are used for this include mathematical an ...

at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

since 1991. Hjort's research themes are varied, with particularly noteworthy contributions in the fields of

Bayesian probability Bayesian probability is an interpretation of the concept of probability, in which, instead of frequency or propensity of some phenomenon, probability is interpreted as reasonable expectation representing a state of knowledge or as quantification ...

(Beta processes for use in non- and semi-parametric models, particularly within

survival analysis Survival analysis is a branch of statistics for analyzing the expected duration of time until one event occurs, such as death in biological organisms and failure in mechanical systems. This topic is called reliability theory or reliability analysi ...

and event history analysis, but also with links to Indian buffet processes in

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

), density estimation and

nonparametric regression Nonparametric regression is a category of regression analysis in which the predictor does not take a predetermined form but is constructed according to information derived from the data. That is, no parametric form is assumed for the relationship ...

(local likelihood methodology), model selection ( focused information criteria and model averaging), confidence distributions, and change detection. He has also worked with

spatial statistics Spatial analysis or spatial statistics includes any of the formal techniques which studies entities using their topological, geometric, or geographic properties. Spatial analysis includes a variety of techniques, many still in their early devel ...

, statistics of

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Ear ...

pattern recognition Pattern recognition is the automated recognition of patterns and regularities in data. It has applications in statistical data analysis, signal processing, image analysis, information retrieval, bioinformatics, data compression, computer graphics ...

, etc. An article on frequentist model averaging, with co-author Gerda Claeskens, was selected as ''Fast Breaking Paper in the field of mathematics'' by the Essential Science Indicators in 2005. This and a companion paper, both published in

Journal of the American Statistical Association The ''Journal of the American Statistical Association (JASA)'' is the primary journal published by the American Statistical Association, the main professional body for statisticians in the United States. It is published four times a year in Mar ...

in 2003, introduced focused information criteria, along with a clear large-sample analysis of subset and post-selection estimators. Hjort has been a core member of the Centre of Excellence Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, on the scientific advisory board of the Centre for Innovation Statistics for Innovation, and has also been involved with the Centre for Biostatistical Modelling in the Medical Sciences, all within the

. Hjort is an elected member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...

since 1999, the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters since 2016, and was the third recipient of the

Sverdrup Prize The Sverdrup Prize (''Sverdrupprisen'') is a Norwegian honorary award concerning the fields of theoretical and applied statistics. History It was established in the memory of Erling Sverdrup Erling Sverdrup (23 February 1917 – 15 March 1994) w ...

, awarded by the Norwegian Statistical Association in 2013. He was also the first recipient of the Ludwig von Drake Award. He has also served on the

editorial board The editorial board is a group of experts, usually at a publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take. Mass media At a newspaper, the editorial board usually consists of the editorial page editor, ...

s on various journals dedicated to the methodology and application of statistical research, including the '' Scandinavian Journal of Statistics'', ''

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B The ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of statistics. It comprises three series and is published by Wiley for the Royal Statistical Society. History The Statistical Society of London was found ...

'', and the '' Annals of Statistics'', and has been on the programme committees of numerous international conferences. He has led the 2014–2019

Research Council of Norway The Research Council (also the Research Council of Norway; no, Norges forskningsråd) is a Norwegian government agency that funds research and innovation projects. On behalf of the Government, the Research Council invests NOK 11,9 billion (2021) ...

funded project ''FocuStat: Focus Driven Statistical Inference With Complex Data'' at the University of Oslo, and is co-leading the 2022–2023 project ''Stability and Change'' at the

Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (CAS; no, Senter for grunnforskning ved Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi) is an independent research foundation funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research ...

. Over the years, Hjort has supervised or co-supervised about 40 Master's degree students and about 15

PhDs A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

. Among these are Steffen Grønneberg and Céline Cunen, both winners of the Sverdrup Young Researcher Prize, Martin Jullum and Ingrid Dæhlen, both winners of the Norwegian Computing Centre Master's Prize. On the applied side, Hjort demonstrated in 1994 that there is a small but Olympically significant difference between inner-lane and outer-lane starts for 500 m speedskating races, after a systematic analysis of world sprint championships data, implying that the Olympic 500 m event has been unfair since 1924. As a result of Hjort's work and initiative, the

International Skating Union The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen, N ...

and the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...

changed the rules; since Nagano 1998 onwards, the sprint skaters race the 500 m twice, with one start in inner lane and one start in the outer lane. He has also been a regular contributor to the '' Speedskating World'' magazine. Other applied work has involved analysis of literary texts. In the famous case of potential plagiarism where

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repr ...

and others accused

Mikhail Sholokhov Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov ( rus, Михаил Александрович Шолохов, p=ˈʂoləxəf; – 21 February 1984) was a Russian novelist and winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is known for writing about life ...

of not being the rightful author of ''

And Quiet Flows the Don ''And Quiet Flows the Don'' (''Quiet Flows the Don'' or ''The Silent Don'', russian: Тихий Дон, literally ''The Quiet Don'') is a novel in four volumes by Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov. The first three volumes were written from 192 ...

'', Hjort's analysis gives full support to Sholokhov. Since 2020, Hjort and fellow statisticians have collaborated with peace-and-conflict and political science researchers, from

Peace Research Institute Oslo The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO; no, Institutt for fredsforskning) is a private research institution in peace and conflict studies, based in Oslo, Norway, with around 100 employees. It was founded in 1959 by a group of Norwegian researcher ...

and elsewhere, to study the quantitative mechanics of conflicts, analyse and predict conflict levels, etc. Hjort's other interests include

Disney comics Disney comics are comic books and comic strips featuring characters created by the Walt Disney Company, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge. The first Disney comics were newspaper strips appearing from 1930 on, starting with th ...

(where he has given public lectures and written scholarly articles for various publishers),

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small nu ...

and choir singing (taking part in more than ten CD recordings with

Grex Vocalis Grex Vocalis (The Singing Band) is a Norwegian chamber choir, formed in 1971 by Carl Høgset. The repertoire spans from the renaissance to music by contemporary composers. The choir has been awarded the Norwegian Spellemannprisen prize (the Norwegi ...

), gøbbing (exchanging ideas with members of a

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-govern ...

), and

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreatio ...

. He has edited two books with the works of notable Disney comics artist

Don Rosa Keno Don Hugo Rosa (), known simply as Don Rosa (born June 29, 1951), is an American comic book writer and illustrator known for his Disney comics stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, and other characters which Carl Barks created for Di ...

. Nils Lid Hjort is one of five sons of

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

lawyer Johan Hjort and Helga Lid, and his grandfathers were Supreme Court lawyer Johan Bernhard Hjort and ethnologist Nils Lid. Among his brothers is typographer, designer and rock music historian Christopher Hjort, and his cousins include writer and publisher Anders Heger, mayor of Tromsø Jens Johan Hjort, violinist and conductor Gottfried von der Goltz, and cellist Kristin von der Goltz.

External links

List of Hjort's publications
via

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes ...

Hjort's page
with the

The FocuStat website: Focus Driven Statistical Inference With Complex Data

Essential Science Indicators interview regarding "this month's fast breaking paper in the field of Mathematics", August 2005
Mangfoldig talltrollmann
Interview in forskning.no

Hjort and other scholars argue for the existence of Santa Claus
The annual World Cup Speedskating Contest
Each year participants from a dozen countries compete for the Nils Lid Hjort trophy

Hjort was its first recipient

These feature Lancelot Pertwillaby and Captain Kentucky
Speedskating Race of the Burg of Ducks
With Disney comics artist

The Olympic 500-m
The Statistical Research Report that contributed to changing the Olympic Rules
The Olympic 500-m, Appendix
Part two of the Research Report

Research implying an Olympically significant unfairness also for the 1000-m

Statistical Sightings of Better Angels
And Quiet Does not Flow the Don: Statistical Analysis of a Quarrel between Nobel Laureates

Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...

vs. Sholokhov, 2007
Bayesian Nonparametrics at the Isaac Newton Institute
The research programme and conference on Bayesian Nonparametrics, 2007 *
Highly Structured Stochastic Systems
' Oxford University Press book, 2003 *

' Cambridge University Press book, 2008 *
Bayesian Nonparametrics
' Cambridge University Press book, 2010 *
Confidence, Likelihood, Probability
' Cambridge University Press book, 2016 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hjort, Nils Lid Norwegian statisticians 1953 births Living people Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters