Michel Loève (; January 22, 1907 – February 17, 1979) was a French-American probabilist and mathematical statistician, of Jewish origin. He is known in mathematical statistics and probability theory for the Karhunen–Loève theorem and Karhunen–Loève transform. Michel Loève was born in

Jaffa Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...

(then part of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

) in 1907, to a Jewish family. He passed most of his childhood years in Egypt and received his primary and secondary education there in French schools. Later, after achieving the grades of B.L. in 1931 and A.B. in 1936, he studied mathematics at the Université de Paris under Paul Lévy, and received his '' Doctorat ès Sciences (Mathématiques)'' in 1941. In 1936 was employed as actuaire of the University of Lyon. Because of his Jewish origin, he was arrested during the

German occupation of France The Military Administration in France (; ) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zone in areas of northern and western France. This so-called ' was established in June 19 ...

and sent to

Drancy internment camp Drancy internment camp () was an assembly and detention camp for confining Jews who were later deported to the extermination camps during the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, German occupation of France duri ...

. One of his books is dedicated "To Line and To the students and teachers of the School in the Camp de Drancy". Having survived the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, after the liberation he became between 1944 and 1946 chief of research at the

Institut Henri Poincaré The Henri Poincaré Institute (or IHP for ''Institut Henri Poincaré'') is a mathematics research institute part of Sorbonne University, in association with the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). It is located in the 5th arrondi ...

at Paris University, then until 1948 worked at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. After one term as a visiting professor 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 ...

he accepted the position of professor of mathematics at Berkeley, in 1955 adding the title professor of statistics. He is the author of one of the earliest books on measure-theoretic probability theory and one of the best known textbooks. He is memorialized via 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 ...

created by his widow Line.

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External links

University of California in MemoriamPhotograph from Portraits of Statisticians
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Loeve, Michel 1907 births 1979 deaths French statisticians French probability theorists University of Paris alumni Academics of the University of London Columbia University staff University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty 20th-century French mathematicians Egyptian emigrants to France French emigrants to the United States Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Egypt

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