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Morris H. DeGroot |
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June 8, 1931 to November 2, 1989 |
| Morris H. DeGroot came to Carnegie Mellon as an Assistant Professor of
Mathematics in 1957 and was appointed founding Head of the Department
of Statistics in 1966. In 1984, Morrie was named University Professor,
which is the highest honor Carnegie Mellon bestows on a faculty
member. |
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Morrie led an unusually active and productive academic life. He wrote
three books, edited four volumes and authored over one hundred
papers. He was the recipient of several awards, including the Otto
Wirth Award for outstanding scholarship from the Roosevelt University
Alumni Association. He was an elected fellow of the American
Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the
International Statistical Institute, the Econometric Society and the
American Association for the Advancement of Science. Most of his
research was on the theory of rational decision-making under
uncertainty. |
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His Optimal Statistical Decisions helped educate a generation
of statisticians and is one of the great books in the field. Published
in 1970 and subsequently translated into both Russian and Polish, it
provided an elegant and comprehensive treatment of a subject that has
since come to be recognized as an essential part of statistics and of
science as a whole. In 1975, his undergraduate text Probability and
Statistics was published. A model of what a textbook should be, it
played an important role in mathematical statistics curricula
throughout the country. |
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