Edward Lynn Kaplan (May 11, 1920 – September 26, 2006) was a mathematician most famous for the

Kaplan–Meier estimator The Kaplan–Meier estimator, also known as the product limit estimator, is a non-parametric statistic used to estimate the survival function from lifetime data. In medical research, it is often used to measure the fraction of patients living f ...

, developed together with Paul Meier.

Biography

Edward Lynn Kaplan was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, on May 11, 1920. His parents were Eugene V. Kaplan (1887–1977) and Frances Rhodes Kaplan (1891–1978). He graduated from Swissvale High School in

Swissvale, Pennsylvania Swissvale is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, east of downtown Pittsburgh. Named for a farmstead owned by James Swisshelm, during the industrial age it was the site of the Union Switch & Signal, Union Switch and Signa ...

, in 1937. He attended the

Carnegie Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

from 1937 to 1941 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1941. Three times—in 1939, 1940, and 1941—he was one of the five honorees in the nationwide

William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often abbreviated to Putnam Competition, is an annual list of mathematics competitions, mathematics competition for undergraduate college students enrolled at institutions of higher learning in th ...

conducted by the American Mathematical Association. He was offered Westinghouse's Putnam Prize Scholar Scholarship in mathematics at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

but was unable to accept due to his involvement in war efforts. Kaplan was elected to three scholastic societies:

Phi Kappa Phi The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (or simply Phi Kappa Phi or ) is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to the area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of educa ...

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is an international non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a faculty member and graduate students in 1886 and is one of the oldest ...

, and the engineering society, Tau Beta Phi. From June 1941 to August 1948, Kaplan worked at the United States Naval Ordinance Laboratory, Whiteoak, Maryland. His department chief during this time was John V. Atanosoff, the inventor of the first electronic computer. After the war, he matriculated in the PhD program in

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

's mathematics department along with future Nobel Laureate, John Nash, Jr. Kaplan and Nash had had the same mathematics tutor while at Carnegie, Professor Joseph B. Rosenbach. Kaplan finished his PhD dissertation, "Infinite permutations of stationary random sequences" in November, 1950. His dissertation committee included Professors

John W. 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 ...

and

Samuel S. Wilks Samuel Stanley Wilks (June 17, 1906 – March 7, 1964) was an American mathematician and academic who played an important role in the development of mathematical statistics, especially in regard to practical applications. Early life and educati ...

. From 1950 to 1957, Kaplan worked for

Bell Telephone Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

in Murray Hill, NJ. In 1957, he went to the Computation Division of the

Lawrence Radiation Laboratory Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

, Livermore, CA, where he worked on the

Monte Carlo simulations Monte Carlo methods, or Monte Carlo experiments, are a broad class of computational algorithms that rely on repeated random sampling to obtain numerical results. The underlying concept is to use randomness to solve problems that might be det ...

attendant to the development of the hydrogen bomb. In the fall of 1961 Kaplan joined the mathematics department of

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctor ...

Corvallis, Oregon Corvallis ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Benton County, Oregon, Benton County in central western Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton Co ...

, where he spent the remainder of his career. He died in Corvallis on September 20, 2006, at the age of 86 after a prolonged debilitating illness.

Bibliography

* 1950: "Multiple elliptic integrals", ''

Journal of Mathematical Physics The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' is a peer-reviewed journal published monthly by the American Institute of Physics devoted to the publication of papers in mathematical physics. The journal was first published bimonthly beginning in Januar ...

'', 29: 69–75. * 1952: "Tensor notation and sampling cumulants of K-statistics", ''

Biometrika ''Biometrika'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Oxford University Press for the Biometrika Trust. The editor-in-chief is Paul Fearnhead (Lancaster University). The principal focus of this journal is theoretical statistics. It was ...

'', 39 (3-4): 319–323. * 1952: "Numerical integration near a singularity", ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'', 31: 1-28. * 1955: "Transformation of stationary random sequences," ''Mathematica Scandinavica'', 3: 127–149. * 1955: "Signal-detection studies, with applications", ''

Bell System Technical Journal The ''Bell Labs Technical Journal'' was the in-house scientific journal for scientists of Bell Labs, published yearly by the IEEE society. The journal was originally established as ''The Bell System Technical Journal'' (BSTJ) in New York by the Am ...

'', 34 (2): 127–149. * 1958: "Monte Carlo methods", ''Proceedings of the Fifth Annual High-Speed Computer Conference'',

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

* 1982: ''Mathematical Programming and Games, volume I'', New York:

John Wiley and Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company was founded in 1807 and produces books, journals, and encyclop ...

, 588 pages

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaplan, Edward L. 1920 births 2006 deaths People from Corvallis, Oregon Oregon State University faculty Carnegie Mellon University alumni Mathematicians from Oregon