Robert Dorfman
Encyclopedia
Robert Dorfman was emeritus professor of political economy at Harvard University
. Dorfman made great contributions to the fields of economics
, group testing
and in the process of coding theory
.
His paper - 'The Detection of Defective Members of Large Populations' (1943) is a landmark in the sphere of Combinatorial Group Testing. To quote collaborator and Nobel laureate Robert M. Solow - "After starting his career as a statistician - his paper 'The Detection of Defective Members of Large Populations' (1943) is still a landmark - he turned to economics at the moment when linear models of production and allocation captured the profession's imagination." Dorfman co-authored "Linear Programming and Economic Analysis" with Solow and economist Paul A. Samuelson
.
on the 27th of October, 1916. He received his B.A. in Mathematical Statistics
from Columbia College, NY in 1936 and his M.A. from Columbia University
in 1937. He worked for the federal government as a statistician for 4 years, starting in 1939 and also served as an operations analyst for the United States Army Air Forces
during the Second World War
. In 1946, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley
and got his Ph.D. in Economics in 1950. Dorfman finally moved to Harvard in 1955. Dorfman's career at Harvard spanned 32 years. Professor of Economics from 1955 to 1972, Dorfman became the David A. Wells Professor of Political Economy in 1972, a position he held until his retirement in 1987.
According to his wife Nancy, Dorfman turned to mathematics as an alternative to poetry after realizing that he did not have a future as a poet. According to the Harvard Gazette, "His lifelong love of poetry and literature was reflected in the clarity and grace with which he was able to explain complex economics in simple language, widely remarked upon by his colleagues.
Dorfman received many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship
and two Ford Faculty Research Fellowships; he was named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 1976 to 1984, he served as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics. During his long and wide-ranging career, Dorfman was vice president of the American Economic Association, vice president of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, and member of several committees focused on environmental concerns. He chaired the National Research Council's Committee on Prototype Analysis of Pesticides in 1978. (This information is directly quoted from The Harvard Gazette article mentioned in the out-links)
In conclusion, to quote Solow, "Always polite, even self-deprecating, never assertive, he nevertheless stood his ground, If Bob Dorfman mildly and quizzically expressed some hesitation about your pet idea, it was always a good move to look up, just in case a boulder was about to crash down on you - politely, of course."
's 19th century "Austrian" theory of capital.
Some of his major works include:
In the preface to his collected works, "Economic Theory and Public Decisions"(1997), Dorfman expressed his personal reservations about "reducing the amount of instruction in the social science side of economics to make way for mathematics." He however, remained ambivalent about the costs and the benefits of this change in methodology while recognizing it's inevitability.
To quote James Duesenberry, Professor Emeritus of Economics and a longtime colleague of Dorfman's, "He was really devoted to scholarship; he was a very careful worker in everything he did, he was always a public-spirited member of this department."
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Dorfman made great contributions to the fields of 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"...
, group testing
Group testing
In combinatorial mathematics, group testing is a set of problems with the objective of reducing the cost of identifying certain elements of a set.-Background:Robert Dorfman's paper in 1943 introduced the field of Group Testing...
and in the process of coding theory
Coding theory
Coding theory is the study of the properties of codes and their fitness for a specific application. Codes are used for data compression, cryptography, error-correction and more recently also for network coding...
.
His paper - 'The Detection of Defective Members of Large Populations' (1943) is a landmark in the sphere of Combinatorial Group Testing. To quote collaborator and Nobel laureate Robert M. Solow - "After starting his career as a statistician - his paper 'The Detection of Defective Members of Large Populations' (1943) is still a landmark - he turned to economics at the moment when linear models of production and allocation captured the profession's imagination." Dorfman co-authored "Linear Programming and Economic Analysis" with Solow and economist Paul A. Samuelson
Paul Samuelson
Paul Anthony Samuelson was an American economist, and the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. The Swedish Royal Academies stated, when awarding the prize, that he "has done more than any other contemporary economist to raise the level of scientific analysis in...
.
Biography
Dorfman was born in New YorkNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on the 27th of October, 1916. He received his B.A. in Mathematical 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...
from Columbia College, NY in 1936 and his M.A. from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1937. He worked for the federal government as a statistician for 4 years, starting in 1939 and also served as an operations analyst for the United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
during the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1946, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
and got his Ph.D. in Economics in 1950. Dorfman finally moved to Harvard in 1955. Dorfman's career at Harvard spanned 32 years. Professor of Economics from 1955 to 1972, Dorfman became the David A. Wells Professor of Political Economy in 1972, a position he held until his retirement in 1987.
According to his wife Nancy, Dorfman turned to mathematics as an alternative to poetry after realizing that he did not have a future as a poet. According to the Harvard Gazette, "His lifelong love of poetry and literature was reflected in the clarity and grace with which he was able to explain complex economics in simple language, widely remarked upon by his colleagues.
Dorfman received many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
and two Ford Faculty Research Fellowships; he was named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 1976 to 1984, he served as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics. During his long and wide-ranging career, Dorfman was vice president of the American Economic Association, vice president of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, and member of several committees focused on environmental concerns. He chaired the National Research Council's Committee on Prototype Analysis of Pesticides in 1978. (This information is directly quoted from The Harvard Gazette article mentioned in the out-links)
In conclusion, to quote Solow, "Always polite, even self-deprecating, never assertive, he nevertheless stood his ground, If Bob Dorfman mildly and quizzically expressed some hesitation about your pet idea, it was always a good move to look up, just in case a boulder was about to crash down on you - politely, of course."
Work and Professional opinions
Apart from his work in group testing, he made great contributions to environmental economics, especially regarding natural resources in the Middle East and South Asia. His analysis of the water resources in Pakistan helped draw engineers and hydrologists and got significant work done towards the preservation and economic use of scarce natural resources. In the later years of his professional life, he turned his focus towards economic history. His work in the area of capital theory and it's antecedent led to the modernization of economist Eugen Bohm-BawerkEugen von Böhm-Bawerk
Eugen Ritter von Böhm-Bawerk was an Austrian economist who made important contributions to the development of the Austrian School of economics.-Biography:...
's 19th century "Austrian" theory of capital.
Some of his major works include:
- "Design of Water Resource Systems" (1962), co-authored with Arthur Maass, Maynard Hufschmidt, and others;
- "Prices and Markets" (1967); "Models for Managing Water Quality" (1972), co-authored with H.D. Jacoby and H.A. Thomas Jr.;
- "Economics of the Environment" (1972), co-authored with Nancy S. Dorfman; and "Economic Theory and Public Decisions" (1997)
In the preface to his collected works, "Economic Theory and Public Decisions"(1997), Dorfman expressed his personal reservations about "reducing the amount of instruction in the social science side of economics to make way for mathematics." He however, remained ambivalent about the costs and the benefits of this change in methodology while recognizing it's inevitability.
To quote James Duesenberry, Professor Emeritus of Economics and a longtime colleague of Dorfman's, "He was really devoted to scholarship; he was a very careful worker in everything he did, he was always a public-spirited member of this department."
Publications
- Dorfman, Robert; Maass Arthur; Hufschmidt, Maynard; Harold, Thomas A. Jr; Marglin Stephen A; Fair, Gordon Maskew. (1962). Design of Water Resource Systems Harvard University Press.
- Dorfman, Robert; Thomas H. A. Jr.; Jacoby, H. D. (1967). Prices and Market Prentice Hall.
- Dorfman, Robert; Thomas H. A. Jr.; Jacoby, H. D. (1972). Models for managing Water Quality Harvard University Press
- Dorfman, Robert; Dorfman, Nancy S. (1997). Economic Theory and Decisions Edward Elgar
- Dorfman, R. The Detection of Defective Members of Large Populations. The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 14(4), 436-440. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/pss/2235930