Herman Chernoff: an appreciation

Herman Chernoff was attracted to the ﬁeld of statistics, and wrote his Ph.D. dissertation forBrown University in absentia, under the guidance of Abraham Wald at Columbia Univer-sity. The topic of his dissertation was on asymptotic studentization in testing hypotheses.He received his Ph.D. degree from Brown University in 1948. Herman Chernoff workedfrom 1947 to 1949 as Research Associate at the Cowles Commission for research in Eco-nomics at Chicago University. From 1949 to 1951 he was on the faculty of the MathematicsDepartment at The University of Illinois. He joined the Department of Statistics at StanfordUniversity in 1952 as Associate Professor, and became Professor in 1956. He stayed atStanford University for 22 years. In 1974, Herman Chernoff moved to the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology as Professor of Applied Mathematics, and in 1984 he joined theStatistics Department of Harvard University. He retired from Harvard in 1997. During theseyears Herman Chernoff visited Columbia University (1957), The London School of Eco-nomics (1961), The University of Rome (1962), Tel Aviv University (1969), MIT (1969),TheHebrewUniversity(1977,1992),TheAustralianNationalUniversity(1983),TheTech-nion (1984) and Suffolk University (1992). Herman Chernoff received honorary degrees(Honoris Causa) from many institutions, as recognition for his life time contribution tostatistical sciences. Among them Ohio State University (1983), the Technion, Israel Insti-tute ofTechnology (1984), Brown University (1984), Harvard University (1985),AmericanStatistical Association (the Wilks Medal, 1987), La Sapienza (University of Rome) (1996)and The University of Athens (1999).At Brown University Herman met Judy Ullman, whom he married in 1947. They aremarried for over 56 years and live presently in Boston. They have two daughters, Ellen andMiriam.Herman Chernoff is known as an exemplary teacher. He can explain most difﬁcult con-cepts in a very clear manner. He had during the years a large number of Ph.D. students,and collaborated in research with many statisticians. The following are a few paragraphs ofappreciation written by some of his students and research associates.1. Appreciation of colleagues and ex-students1.1. Jagdish Rustagi“I met Herman and Judy more than ﬁfty years ago, on my ﬁrst day of arrival from India atStanford University. Since then, I have had the privilege of his guidance and advice. Duringmy student days, Herman introduced me to the Optimization area of statistics. Later Ideveloped interest in other areas such as environmental, industrial and agricultural statisticsas well as lotteries. Herman has been a constant source of inspiration during my statisticalcareer. He helped me in organization of several conferences on Optimization in Statistics.When we offered to dedicate one of the volumes in his honor, he declined and instead heproposed that it be dedicated to Henry Scheffe, one of his co-authors in his early research.His generosity with his ideas and his time is well known and he does not want credit evenwhen he has made a major contribution. This is a true example of a selﬂess teacher.The creation of the Department of Statistics at the Ohio State University more than30 years ago owes a great debt to Herman for his advice and guidance in its early days.His frequent seminars at Ohio State inﬂuenced the character of the Department and the