Steve Selvin (born 1941) is an American

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 ...

and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

biostatistics Biostatistics (also known as biometry) is a branch of statistics that applies statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experimen ...

at 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 ...

. Selvin joined the faculty of the ''School of Public Health'' at UC Berkeley in 1972, and in 1977, he became the head of its biostatistics division. As the head of the Undergraduate Management Committee, he was instrumental in developing the school's undergraduate program. In addition to his work at UC Berkeley, he also served from 1990 to 1998 as an adjunct professor of

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...

at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

and since 2005 as a professor of biostatistics at the

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

. UC Berkeley bestowed several awards on Selvin for his achievements in teaching. He received the ''Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award'' in 1983 and the ''School of Public Health Distinguished Teaching Award'' in 1998. In 2011, at 70, he was awarded a Berkeley Citation. Selvin published over 200 papers and authored several textbooks in the fields of biostatistics and epidemiology. In February 1975, Selvin published a letter entitled ''A Problem in Probability'' in the

American Statistician ''The American Statistician'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering statistics published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the American Statistical Association. It was established in 1947. The editor-in-chief is Daniel R. Jeske, ...

. In it he posed and solved a problem later known as the

Monty Hall problem The Monty Hall problem is a brain teaser, in the form of a probability puzzle, based nominally on the American television game show ''Let's Make a Deal'' and named after its original host, Monty Hall. The problem was originally posed (and solved ...

. After receiving criticism for his suggested solution, Selvin wrote a follow-up letter entitled ''On the Monty Hall Problem,'' published in August of the same year. This was the first time the phrase "Monty Hall Problem" appeared in print. Selvin proposed a solution based on

Bayes' theorem Bayes' theorem (alternatively Bayes' law or Bayes' rule, after Thomas Bayes) gives a mathematical rule for inverting Conditional probability, conditional probabilities, allowing one to find the probability of a cause given its effect. For exampl ...

in this second letter and explicitly outlined some assumptions concerning the moderator's behavior. The problem remained relatively unknown until it was published again by

Marilyn vos Savant Marilyn vos Savant ( ; born Marilyn Mach; August 11, 1946) is an American magazine columnist who has the highest recorded intelligence quotient (IQ) in the ''Guinness Book of Records'', a competitive category the publication has since retired. S ...

in her column for ''Parade'' magazine in 1990. This publication generated a lot of controversy and made the problem widely known worldwide. As a result, quite a few papers were published on the Monty Hall Problem over the years, and it is featured in many introductory probability & statistics classes and textbooks. Selvin lives in the

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 ...

area and is married to the sculptor

Nancy Selvin Nancy Selvin (born 1943) is an American sculptor, recognized for ceramic works and tableaux that explore the vessel form and balance an interplay of materials, minimal forms, and expressive processes.Muchnic, Suzanne. "Galleries," ''Los Angeles ...

, the epidemiologist

Elizabeth Selvin Elizabeth Selvin (born 1977) is an American diabetes epidemiologist. She is a full professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Early life and education Selvin was born to parents Nancy Selvin and Steve Sel ...

is his daughter.Peterson, Susan H. "Dynamic Still Lifes of Form and Beauty," ''Airbrush Digest'', September/October 1984, p. 24–32.

Works

*''A Problem in Probability''. The American Statistician, February 1975 (first publication of the Monty Hall Problem
online copy
at

JSTOR JSTOR ( ; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary source ...

) *''On the Monty Hall Problem''. The American Statistician, August 1975 (first literal mentioning of the phrase "Monty Hall Problem"
online copy (excerpt)
*''Statistical Analysis of Epidemiologic Data''. Oxford University Press, New York, 1991, 3. edition 2004, *''Modern Applied Biostatistical Methods Using SPLUS.'' Oxford University Press, New York, 1998, *''Epidemiologic Analysis: a case-oriented approach.'' Oxford University Press, New York, 2001, *''Biostatistics: How it works.'' Prentice Hall, New York, 2004, *''Survival Analysis for epidemiologic and Medical Research Analysis of Epidemiologic Data''. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2008, *''Statistical Tools for Epidemiologic Research''. Oxford University Press, 2011, *''The Joy Of Statistics: A Treasury Of Elementary Statistical Tools And Their Applications''. Oxford University Press, 2019

References

''Berkeley Citation awarded to biostatistician Steve Selvin for long history of achievement''
School of Public Health (press release), Berkeley, 17. Oktober 2011 Jason Rosenhouse: ''The Monty Hall Problem''. Oxford University Press 2009, , pp. 20-22, 31 ''Dr.Steve Selvin''
. Biography at the website of the ''Association of Schools of Public Health'' (retrieved 2012-9-30)

External links

(archived)
Steve Selvin, Ph.D.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Selvin, Steve American statisticians 1941 births Living people University of Michigan faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty Johns Hopkins University faculty