George Dantzig
Overview
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
mathematical scientist
Mathematical sciences
Mathematical sciences is a broad term that refers to those academic disciplines that are primarily mathematical in nature but may not be universally considered subfields of mathematics proper...
who made important contributions to operations research
Operations research
Operations research is an interdisciplinary mathematical science that focuses on the effective use of technology by organizations...
, computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, and statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
.
Dantzig is known for his development of the simplex algorithm
Simplex algorithm
In mathematical optimization, Dantzig's simplex algorithm is a popular algorithm for linear programming. The journal Computing in Science and Engineering listed it as one of the top 10 algorithms of the twentieth century....
, an algorithm for solving linear programming
Linear programming
Linear programming is a mathematical method for determining a way to achieve the best outcome in a given mathematical model for some list of requirements represented as linear relationships...
problems, and his work with linear programming, some years after it was invented by the Soviet mathematician & economist Leonid Kantorovich
Leonid Kantorovich
Leonid Vitaliyevich Kantorovich was a Soviet mathematician and economist, known for his theory and development of techniques for the optimal allocation of resources...
. In statistics
Mathematical statistics
Mathematical statistics is the study of statistics from a mathematical standpoint, using probability theory as well as other branches of mathematics such as linear algebra and analysis...
, Dantzig solved two open problem
Open problem
In science and mathematics, an open problem or an open question is a known problem that can be accurately stated, and has not yet been solved . Some questions remain unanswered for centuries before solutions are found...
s in statistical theory
Statistical theory
The theory of statistics provides a basis for the whole range of techniques, in both study design and data analysis, that are used within applications of statistics. The theory covers approaches to statistical-decision problems and to statistical inference, and the actions and deductions that...
, which he had mistaken for homework after arriving late to a lecture of Jerzy Neyman
Jerzy Neyman
Jerzy Neyman , born Jerzy Spława-Neyman, was a Polish American mathematician and statistician who spent most of his professional career at the University of California, Berkeley.-Life and career:...
.
Dantzig was the Professor Emeritus of Transportation Sciences and Professor of Operations Research
Operations research
Operations research is an interdisciplinary mathematical science that focuses on the effective use of technology by organizations...
and of Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
at Stanford.
Born in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, George Bernard Dantzig was named after George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
, the Irish writer.