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David Blackwell
Mathematician

David Blackwell

Famoose for

Advancing statistics, decision theory and the mathematical study of information.

Rao–Blackwell theorem · Theory of Games and Statistical Decisions

Born
24 April 1919
Birthplace
Centralia, Illinois, United States
Died
8 July 2010

More people

Marie CurieDiscovering polonium and radium.Albert EinsteinDeveloping the theory of relativity.Charles DarwinExplaining evolution through natural selection.

David Blackwell

David Blackwell was an American mathematician whose work connected abstract reasoning with decision-making under uncertainty.

Early life

Illinois

Grew up in Centralia.

Early doctorate

Completed his doctorate at the University of Illinois at a young age.

Career

  1. 1940s

    Teaching

    Worked at several institutions, including Howard University.

  2. 1954 onward

    Berkeley

    Built a long research and teaching career.

  3. Later career

    Recognition

    Became a leading figure in statistics and probability.

Contributions

Rao–Blackwell theorem

Helped establish a method for improving estimators.

Theory of Games and Statistical Decisions

Co-wrote the book with M. A. Girshick.

Approachability theorem

Developed a major result for repeated games.

Beyond mathematics

Barriers

Faced racial discrimination in academic employment.

Recognition

Became the first Black member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Sources & photo creditLife, career and references ↗

Photo: George Bergman. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.