David John Aldous FRS (born 13 July 1952) is a

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 ...

known for his research on

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 ...

and its applications, in particular in topics such as

exchangeability In statistics, an exchangeable sequence of random variables (also sometimes interchangeable) is a sequence ''X''1, ''X''2, ''X''3, ... (which may be finitely or infinitely long) whose joint probability distribution does not change wh ...

, weak convergence,

Markov chain mixing time In probability theory, the mixing time of a Markov chain is the time until the Markov chain is "close" to its steady state distribution. More precisely, a fundamental result about Markov chains is that a finite state irreducible aperiodic chain h ...

s, the continuum random tree and stochastic coalescence. He entered

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

, in 1970 and received his Ph.D. at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1977 under his advisor, D. J. H. Garling. Aldous was on the faculty at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

from 1979 until his retirement in 2018. He was awarded the

Rollo Davidson Prize The Rollo Davidson Prize is a prize awarded annually to early-career probabilists by the Rollo Davidson trustees. It is named after English mathematician Rollo Davidson (1944–1970). Rollo Davidson Trust In 1970, Rollo Davidson, a Fellow-e ...

in 1980, the

Loève Prize The Line and Michel Loève International Prize in Probability (known as the Loève Prize) is an American mathematical award. It is awarded every two years, and is intended to recognize outstanding contributions by researchers in mathematical pr ...

in 1993, and was elected a

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1994. In 2004, Aldous was elected a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

. From 2004 to 2010, Aldous was an

Andrew Dickson White Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American historian and educator who co-founded Cornell University, one of eight Ivy League universities in the United States, and served as its first president for nearly two de ...

Professor-at-Large at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. He was an invited speaker at the

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

(ICM) in 1998 in Berlin and a plenary speaker at the ICM in 2010 in Hyderabad. In 2012 he became a fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

.List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
, retrieved 3 November 2012. He discovered (independently from

Andrei Broder Andrei Zary Broder (born April 12, 1953) is a distinguished scientist at Google. Previously, he was a research fellow and vice president of computational advertising for Yahoo!, and before that, the vice president of research for AltaVista. He ha ...

) an algorithm for generating a

uniform spanning tree A uniform is a variety of costume worn by members of an organization while usually participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are most often worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency serv ...

of a given graph.

Selected publications

Books

As editor

* (pbk reprint of 1995 original) * (pbk reprint of 1996 original)

Papers

*Aldous, David, "Deterministic and stochastic models for coalescence (aggregation and coagulation): a review of the mean-field theory for probabilists". Bernoulli 5 (1999) pp. 3–48. *Aldous, David, "Exchangeability and related topics". Lecture Notes in Math., 1117 (1985) pp 1–198. Springer, Berlin.

References

External links

* *
Dynkin Collection Interview
1952 births Living people Probability theorists Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences International Mathematical Olympiad participants {{US-mathematician-stub