Theodore Preston Hill (born December 28, 1943),

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". ...

at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

, is an American

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 ...

specializing mainly in

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 ...

. He is an Elected Member of the

International Statistical Institute The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a professional association of statisticians. At a meeting of the Jubilee Meeting of the Royal Statistical Society, statisticians met and formed the agreed statues of the International Statistical ...

(1993), and an Elected Fellow 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 ...

(1999).

Contributions

Hill discovered what many consider to be the definitive proof of Benford's law. He is also known for his research in the theories of

optimal stopping In mathematics, the theory of optimal stopping or early stopping : (For French translation, secover storyin the July issue of ''Pour la Science'' (2009).) is concerned with the problem of choosing a time to take a particular action, in order to ...

(including secretary problems and prophet inequality problems) and of

fair division Fair division is the problem in game theory of dividing a set of resources among several people who have an Entitlement (fair division), entitlement to them so that each person receives their due share. The central tenet of fair division is that ...

, in particular the Hill-Beck land division problem. Hill has attracted widespread attention for a paper on the

variability hypothesis The variability hypothesis, also known as the greater male variability hypothesis, is the hypothesis that human males generally display greater variability in traits than human females do. It has often been discussed in relation to human cognitiv ...

, the theory that men exhibit greater variability than women in genetically controlled traits that he wrote with Sergei Tabachnikov. It was accepted but not published by ''

The Mathematical Intelligencer ''The Mathematical Intelligencer'' is a mathematical journal published by Springer Science+Business Media that aims at a conversational and scholarly tone, rather than the technical and specialist tone more common among academic journals. Volumes ...

''; a later version authored by Hill alone was peer reviewed and accepted by ''

The New York Journal of Mathematics The ''New York Journal of Mathematics'' is a peer-reviewed journal focusing on algebra, analysis, geometry and topology. Its editorial board, , consists of 17 university-affiliated scholars in addition to the Editor-in-chief. Articles in the ''New ...

'' and retracted after publication. A revised version, again authored by Hill alone, was subsequently peer reviewed again and published in the ''Journal of Interdisciplinary Mathematics''.

Education and career

Born in Flatbush, New York, he studied at the

United States Military Academy at West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as commissioned officers in the United States Army. The academy was founded ...

(Distinguished Graduate of the Class of 1966), and

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

(M.S. in

Operations Research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and ...

). After graduating from the U.S. Army Ranger School and serving as an Army Captain in the Combat Engineers of the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam, he returned to study mathematics at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

(

Fulbright Scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the peopl ...

), the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

(M.A., Ph.D. under advisor Lester Dubins), and as NATO/NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

. He spent most of his career as a professor in the School of Mathematics at the

, with temporary appointments at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

, the

University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

, the

(Fulbright Professor), the

University of Costa Rica The University of Costa Rica (Spanish: ''Universidad de Costa Rica,'' abbreviated UCR) is a public university in the Republic of Costa Rica, in Central America. Its main campus, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, is located in San Pedro Mo ...

, the Free University of Amsterdam, the Mexican Centre for Mathematical Research ( CIMAT), and as Gauss Professor in the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. Hill has given invited mathematics research lectures in English, German, Spanish and Dutch.

Selected publications

* * * * * * * *

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Ted 1943 births 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Living people United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War Georgia Tech faculty Stanford University School of Engineering alumni United States Military Academy alumni Washington University in St. Louis mathematicians American probability theorists People from Flatbush, Brooklyn Mathematicians from New York (state) Fair division researchers Academic staff of Tel Aviv University University of Hawaiʻi faculty Academic staff of the University of Costa Rica Academic staff of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni United States Army officers