Jack Carl Kiefer (January 25, 1924 – August 10, 1981) was an American mathematical

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 ...

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 ...

(1952 to 1979) and the

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 ...

(1979 to 1981). His research interests included the optimal design of experiments, which was his major research area, as well as a wide variety of topics in mathematical statistics.

Biography

Jack Kiefer was born in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

, to Carl Jack Kiefer and Marguerite K. Rosenau. He began his undergraduate studies at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in 1942, but left after one year, taking up a position as

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a se ...

in the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, during which he taught about

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

systems. In 1946, he returned to MIT, graduating with bachelor's and master's degrees in

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

and

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

in 1948 under the supervision of Harold Freeman. He then began graduate studies at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, under the supervision of

Abraham Wald Abraham Wald (; ; , ; – ) was a Hungarian and American mathematician and statistician who contributed to decision theory, geometry and econometrics, and founded the field of sequential analysis. One of his well-known statistical works was ...

and Jacob Wolfowitz, receiving his Ph.D. in

mathematical statistics Mathematical statistics is the application of probability theory and other mathematical concepts to statistics, as opposed to techniques for collecting statistical data. Specific mathematical techniques that are commonly used in statistics inc ...

in 1952. While still a graduate student, he began teaching at

in 1951. There was an active scene of inquiry in the fields of probability and statistics on the campus, and he became an assistant professor in 1952 and an associate professor in 1955. In 1957, he married Dooley Sciple, a former undergraduate student of his at Cornell, with whom he had two children. He was appointed a full professor in 1959. Courses that Kiefer taught at Cornell included "Statistics" and "Sequential Analysis and Nonparametric Inference". He was an editor for several academic journals during his time there. Kiefer was publicly active in

opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1965 with demonstrations against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War, United States in the war. Over the next several years, these demonstrations grew ...

, in particular via

tax resistance Tax resistance is the refusal to pay tax because of opposition to the government that is imposing the tax, or to government policy, or as opposition to taxation in itself. Tax resistance is a form of direct action and, if in violation of the ta ...

. A resident of

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

, he was a member of county committees and executive committees of

Liberal Party of New York The Liberal Party of New York is a political party in New York (state), New York. Its political platform, platform supports a standard set of socially liberal policies, including abortion rights, increased spending on education, and universal h ...

for a number of years. In 1968, he ran for the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...

as the candidate of the Liberal Party. He waged what he called a "limited educational campaign" to highlight a choice beyond the two major parties, acknowledging that his

prior probability A prior probability distribution of an uncertain quantity, simply called the prior, is its assumed probability distribution before some evidence is taken into account. For example, the prior could be the probability distribution representing the ...

of winning the election was zero. Incumbent Constance E. Cook was reelected, with Kiefer receiving about 4.5 percent of the vote. During the early 1970s, Kiefer was on a committee offering views to Cornell's board of trustees regarding

socially responsible investing Socially responsible investing (SRI) is any investment strategy which seeks to consider financial return alongside ethical, social or environmental goals. The areas of concern recognized by SRI practitioners are often linked to environmental, ...

. In 1979, he accepted early retirement from Cornell and accepted a new position as Miller Research Professor in the Department of Statistics and Mathematics at the

. Kiefer died of a heart attack in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

on August 10, 1981.; .

Awards and honors

Kiefer was 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

American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 27, 1839, and is the second-oldest continuous ...

and of the

Institute of Mathematical Statistics The Institute of Mathematical Statistics is an international professional and scholarly society devoted to the development, dissemination, and application of statistics and probability. The Institute currently has about 4,000 members in all parts ...

, a member 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 ...

(elected 1972) and of the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

(elected 1975). From 1969–1970 he was president of the

. In 1973, Kiefer and the physicist-chemist-mathematician

Michael Fisher Michael Ellis Fisher (3 September 1931 – 26 November 2021) was an English physicist, as well as chemist and mathematician, known for his many seminal contributions to statistical physics, including but not restricted to the theory of phase t ...

were the first two Cornell faculty elected as Horace White Professors, a new position named after the politician and Cornell scion."2 Professors Are Named To Horace White Chairs"
''Cornell Chronicle'', vol. 4, no. 19, Feb. 22, 1973. Page 3. Retrieved May 30, 2011.

Contributions

Much of Kiefer's research was on the

design of experiments The design of experiments (DOE), also known as experiment design or experimental design, is the design of any task that aims to describe and explain the variation of information under conditions that are hypothesized to reflect the variation. ...

; the ''American Statistician'' obituary calls him "undoubtedly the foremost worker in optimal experimental design". However, he also made significant contributions to other areas of statistics and optimization, including the introduction of

golden section search The golden-section search is a technique for finding an extremum (minimum or maximum) of a function inside a specified interval. For a strictly unimodal function with an extremum inside the interval, it will find that extremum, while for an interv ...

(his master's thesis work) the Dvoretzky–Kiefer–Wolfowitz inequality and the Bahadur-Ghosh-Kiefer representation (with R. R. Bahadur and J. K. Ghosh).

Notes

References

*. *. Reviewed in ''Biometrics'' 43 (1): 257. *. * *. *. *. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kiefer, Jack Carl Presidents of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Cornell University faculty University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni 1924 births 1981 deaths Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 20th-century American mathematicians American mathematical statisticians People from Cincinnati People from Ithaca, New York Liberal Party of New York politicians

Biography

Awards and honors

Contributions

See also

Notes

References