Kolmogorov, Andrei Nikolaevich, 1903-1987

(``Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov,'' CWI Quarterly, 1(1988), pp. 3-18.) by Paul M.B. Vitanyi, CWI and University of Amsterdam

Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, born 25 April 1903 in Tambov, Russia, died 20 October 1987 in Moscow. He was perhaps the foremost contemporary Soviet mathematician and counts as one of the great mathematicians of this century. His many creative and fundamental contributions to a vast variety of mathematical fields are so wide-ranging that I cannot even attempt to treat them either completely or in any detail. For now let me mention a non-exhaustive list of areas he enriched by his fundamental research: The theory of trigonometric series, measure theory, set theory, the theory of integration, constructive logic (intuitionism), topology, approximation theory, probability theory, the theory of random processes, information theory, mathematical statistics, dynamical systems, automata theory, theory of algorithms, mathematical linguistics, turbulence theory, celestial mechanics, differential equations, Hilbert's 13th problem, ballistics, and applications of mathematics to problems of biology, geology, and the crystallization of metals.
Full Article

More about Kolmogorov
Site devoted to the life and work of Kolmogorov

R-np package

The following are from Racine's webpage:

Software
The np package (current version 0.30-1) for R (www.r-project.org) Obtaining: Available directly from the Comprehensive R Archive Network (cran.r-project.org)
Direct link to the np package on CRAN
Announcement on the R-packages mailing list
October 2007 Rnews article (pdf)
Manual (pdf)Vignette (pdf)FAQ (pdf) (html)

Nonparametric Econometrics: A Primer

Racine, J. S. (2008), "Nonparametric Econometrics: A Primer," Foundations and Trends in Econometrics: Vol. 3: No 1, pp 1-88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/0800000009

Jefferey Racine is Visiting UCR on May 7th and 8th

The world's most well-known computational/Nonparametric Econometrician, Jefferey Racine, a prior student of Aman Ullah, is visiting UCR on May 7th and 8th. Racine is known already for his nonparamtric-package in R, beside his nonparametric book, Nonparamtric Econometrics---Theory and Practice, written together with Qi Li.

This time he will present a paper on economic constraints in nonparametric modelling. His visit to US including UCLA, UCSD and UCR. Although he has visited UCR for several times, his coming this time is highly appreciated and expected.

Behave as an Econometrician

Dream of being an Econometrican? Look at what they do, as follows,
1. Study Economics
2. Develope Econometric tools
3. Reading econometric journal articles
4. Learning mathematics and statistics
5. Improve programming skills
6. Go to seminars and comment on others work
7. Referee journal articles
8. Reading history of Econometrics
9. Teach econometrics in a way that could be understood to child and the old as well
10. Go to conferences and present papers
11. Educate young economics Ph. D. students
12. Sell Econometrics to applied economists, financialists, government agents and other institutions as well
13. Travel for tour sight-seeing
14. Help to develope economic research centers and institutes
15. Provide deeper insight into economic questions
16. Writing and publishing articles on top journals
17. Passing down anecdotes of great econometricans to the next generations
18. Create their own history of contributing to a better/more desirable world to live
19. Talk and write in symbols
20. Enjoy their lives with their families
21. Invest their time and money in a way to minimize SSR
22. Estimate whatever they do not know
23. Live on statistics and produce statistics as well
24. Being smart everyday
25. Ask quantitive questions
26. Writing books for the young and others interested
27. Welcomed everywhere except by those economists in history
28. Great heros

Not enough? Add more to the list!

Seashells: the Plainness and Beauty of Their Mathematical Description

by Jorge Picado
Departamento de Matemática
Universidade de Coimbra
picado@mat.uc.pt
Fulltext
Abstract:
One might at first tend to think that the growth of plants and animals, because of their elaborate forms, are ruled by highly complex laws. However, this is surprisingly not always true: many aspects of the growth of plants and animals may be described by remarkably simple mathematical laws. An obvious example of this are the seashells and snails, as we show here: with a very simple model it is possible to describe and generate any of the many types of seashells that one may find classified in a good seashell bookguide. The fact that the animal which lives at the open edge of the shell places new shell material always in that edge, and faster on one side than the other, makes the shell to grow in a spiral. The rates at which shell material is secreted at different points of the open edge are presumably determined by the anatomy of the animal. And, surprisingly, even fairly small changes in such rates can have quite tremendous effects on the overall shape of the shell, which is in the origin of the existence of a great diversity of shells.

The ET Interview: Professor H. O. A. Wold: 1908-1992 The ET Interview: Professor H. O. A. Wold: 1908-1992

David F. Hendry, Mary S. Morgan, H. O. A. Wold
Econometric Theory, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Jun., 1994), pp. 419-433

Sadly, Herman Wold died on February 16, 1992, before agreeing to the final version of this interview. We are indebted to his son, Professor Svante Wold, for his kind permission to publish. We hope that this record of our discussions with Herman Wold, who, together with his two great Norwe- gian compatriots Ragnar Frisch and Trygve Haavelmo, helped lay the sta- tistical foundations of modern econometrics, will contribute to his memory. From our personal perspective, Herman Wold was an enthusiastic suppor- ter of our early incursions into the history of econometrics (see The History of Econometric Ideas by Mary Morgan, 1990), and we know that there are many like us who will greatly miss his stimulating contributions. Herman Wold was born on Christmas day, 1908, at Skien, Norway. His family moved to a small town outside Stockholm in 1912, and he lived in Sweden for the remainder of his life. He enrolled at Stockholm University in 1927 to study physics, mathematics, and economics but switched to study- ing statistics with Harald Cramer. After his undergraduate degree, he stud- ied the theory of risk with Cramer, then worked for an insurance company for a period, returning to Stockholm University in 1936. His doctoral the- sis of 1938, A Study in the Analysis of Stationary Time Series, embodies the famous Wold Decomposition theorem. In 1942, he moved to the Chair of Statistics in Uppsala and held that post until 1970, when he went to Goteborg for five years, finally becoming Professor Emeritus at Uppsala in 1975. He became a Fellow and later President of the Econometric Society; was Vice-President of the International Statistical Institute; a Foreign Honor- ary Member of both the American Economic Association and the Ameri- can Academy of Arts and Sciences; an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society; a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, serving on the Nobel Prize Committee in Economics from 1968 until 1980; and was the recipient of several honorary doctorates. In retirement, he was Professeur Invite at the University of Geneva until 1980.