Theodore Preston Hill (born December 28, 1943) 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 in

probability theory Probability theory 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 expressing it through a set o ...

. He is a

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

and a researcher at

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...

Contributions

Hill is known for his research on mathematical

, in particular for his work on

Benford's law Benford's law, also known as the Newcomb–Benford law, the law of anomalous numbers, or the first-digit law, is an observation that in many real-life sets of numerical data, the leading digit is likely to be small.Arno Berger and Theodore P ...

, and for his work 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 ...

(

secretary problems The secretary problem demonstrates a scenario involving optimal stopping theory For French translation, secover storyin the July issue of ''Pour la Science'' (2009). that is studied extensively in the fields of applied probability, statistics, an ...

) and

fair division Fair division is the problem in game theory of dividing a set of resources among several people who have an entitlement to them so that each person receives their due share. That problem arises in various real-world settings such as division of i ...

, in particular the Hill-Beck land division problem. Hill has attracted attention for a paper on the theory that men exhibit greater variability than women in genetically controlled traits that he wrote with

Sergei Tabachnikov Sergei Tabachnikov, also spelled Serge, (in Russian: Сергей Львович Табачников; born in 1956) is a Russian mathematician who works in geometry and dynamical systems. He is currently a Professor of Mathematics at Pennsylvan ...

. It was accepted but not published by ''

The Mathematical Intelligencer ''The Mathematical Intelligencer'' is a mathematical journal published by Springer Verlag that aims at a conversational and scholarly tone, rather than the technical and specialist tone more common among academic journals. Volumes are released qua ...

''; 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 ...

'' (''NYJM'') 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 Flatbush is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood consists of several subsections in central Brooklyn and is generally bounded by Prospect Park to the north, East Flatbush to the east, Midwood to the sou ...

, he studied at the

United States Military Academy at West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

(Distinguished Graduate of the Class of 1966), and Stanford University (M.S. in

Operations Research Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve dec ...

). After graduating from the

U.S. Army Ranger School The United States Army Ranger School is a 62-day small unit tactics and leadership course that develops functional skills directly related to units whose mission is to engage the enemy in close combat and direct fire battles. Ranger training wa ...

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, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded i ...

(

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 people o ...

), 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. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

(M.A., Ph.D. under advisor

Lester Dubins Lester Dubins (April 27, 1920 – February 11, 2010) was an American mathematician noted primarily for his research in probability theory. He was a faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley from 1962 through 2004, and in retireme ...

), and as NATO/NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at Leiden University. 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 or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University i ...

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

, the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

, 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 M ...

, the

Free University of Amsterdam The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...

, the Mexican Centre for Mathematical Research ( CIMAT), and as Gauss Professor in the

Göttingen Academy of Sciences Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

. He is currently

of mathematics at the

and Research Scholar in Residence at

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 Probability theorists People from Flatbush, Brooklyn Mathematicians from New York (state) Fair division researchers Washington University in St. Louis faculty Academic staff of Tel Aviv University University of Hawaiʻi faculty University of Costa Rica faculty Academic staff of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni