Leonard Jimmie Savage
| Leonard J. Savage | |
|---|---|
| Born |
20 November 1917 Detroit |
| Died | 1 November 1971 (aged 53) New Haven |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Mathematics, Statistics |
| Institutions |
University of Chicago Princeton University Yale University Columbia University |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Doctoral advisor | Sumner Myers |
| Doctoral students |
Don Berry Morris H. DeGroot Robert Ling Roy Radner |
Leonard Jimmie Savage (born Leonard Ogashevitz; 20 November 1917 – 1 November 1971) was an American mathematician and statistician. Economist Milton Friedman said Savage was "one of the few people I have met whom I would unhesitatingly call a genius."
He graduated from the University of Michigan and later worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, Yale University, and the Statistical Research Group at Columbia University. Though his thesis advisor was Sumner Myers, he also credited Milton Friedman and W. Allen Wallis as statistical mentors.
His most noted work was the 1954 book Foundations of Statistics, in which he put forward a theory of subjective and personal probability and statistics which forms one of the strands underlying Bayesian statistics and has applications to game theory.
During World War II, Savage served as chief "statistical" assistant to John von Neumann, the mathematician credited with describing the principles upon which electronic computers should be based. Later he was one the participants to the Macy conferences on cybernetics.
One of Savage's indirect contributions was his discovery of the work of Louis Bachelier on stochastic models for asset prices and the mathematical theory of option pricing. Savage brought the work of Bachelier to the attention of Paul Samuelson. It was from Samuelson's subsequent writing that "random walk" (and subsequently Brownian motion) became fundamental to mathematical finance.
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