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What did David Blackwell contribute?
David Blackwell, in full David Harold Blackwell, (born April 24, 1919, Centralia, Illinois, U.S.—died July 8, 2010, Berkeley, California), American statistician and mathematician who made significant contributions to game theory, probability theory, information theory, and Bayesian statistics and who broke racial …
When did David Blackwell become a mathematician?
1938
Blackwell completed his B.A. in Mathematics by 1938 and subsequently completed his M.A. by 1939. In 1941, under the tutelage of Professor Joseph L.
Did David Blackwell invent dynamic programming?
In 1979 Blackwell won the John von Neumann Theory Prize awarded by the Operations Research Society of America and the Institute of Management Sciences. Blackwell was known for his independent invention of dynamic programming, which is used today in finance and in various areas of science, including genome analysis.
What challenges did Blackwell face?
Throughout his entire education and early academic career, Blackwell faced disabling discrimination. He was denied a position when he originally applied to the University of California, Berkeley on account of his race.
Who was the first black person in the world to earn a PHD in mathematics?
Elbert Frank Cox
In 1925, Elbert Frank Cox became the first African American to earn a Ph. D. in mathematics. He taught for 40 years and inspired future Black mathematicians.
What did David Blackwell do for a living?
Blackwell was known for his independent development of dynamic programming. His importance can be gauged by the theorems that bear his name, including the Blackwell renewal theorem, used in engineering, and the Rao-Blackwell theorem in statistics.
What was David Blackwell’s first book on statistics?
Blackwell wrote one of the first Bayesian textbooks, his 1969 Basic Statistics. Blackwell’s Basic Statistics inspired the 1995 textbook Statistics: A Bayesian Perspective by the biostatistician Donald Berry. University of California, Berkeley
When did David Blackwell get the National Medal of Science?
On 3 October 2014, President Obama awarded Dr. Blackwell with the National Medal of Science posthumously. The award was accepted by two of his children, Hugo Blackwell and Sara Blackwell Hunt.
Where was David Blackwell born and raised in Illinois?
David Harold Blackwell was born on April 24, 1919, in Centralia, Illinois to Mabel Johnson Blackwell, a full-time homemaker, and Grover Blackwell, an Illinois Central Railroad worker. He was the eldest of four children.