Ulf Grenander

Ulf Grenander (23 July 1923 – 12 May 2016) was a Swedish statistician and professor of applied mathematics at Brown University.

Ulf Grenander
Born	(1923-07-23)23 July 1923 Västervik, Sweden
Died	12 May 2016(2016-05-12) (aged 92)[1] Providence, Rhode Island, US
Nationality	Swedish
Alma mater	Stockholm University Uppsala University
Known for	Sieve estimation Pattern theory Maximum subarray problem[2] Computational anatomy
Awards	Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences National Academy of Sciences
Scientific career
Fields	Statistics Mathematics Computer science
Institutions	Stockholm University Brown University
Doctoral advisor	Harald Cramér
Doctoral students	Sven Erlander
Other notable students	Per Martin-Löf

His early research was in probability theory, stochastic processes, time series analysis, and statistical theory (particularly the order-constrained estimation of cumulative distribution functions using his sieve estimator). In recent decades, Grenander contributed to computational statistics, image processing, pattern recognition, and artificial intelligence. He coined the term pattern theory to distinguish from pattern recognition.^[3]

Honors

In 1966 Grenander was elected to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Sweden, and in 1996 to the US National Academy of Sciences. In 1998 he was an Invited Speaker of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin.^[4] He received an honorary doctorate in 1994 from the University of Chicago, and in 2005 from the Royal Institute of Technology of Stockholm, Sweden.^[5]

Education

Grenander earned his undergraduate degree at Uppsala University.^[6] He earned his Ph.D. at Stockholm University in 1950 under the supervision of Harald Cramér.^[7]

Appointments

He was active as a 1950–1951 Associate Professor at Stockholm University, 1951–1952 at University of Chicago, At 1952–1953 University of California–Berkeley, At Stockholm University 1953–1957, at Brown University 1957–1958 and 1958–1966 again at Stockholm University, where he succeeded in 1959 Harald Cramér as the Professor in actuarial science and mathematical statistics. From 1966 until his retirement, Grenander was L. Herbert Ballou University Professor at Brown University. In 1969–1974 he was also professor of Applied Mathematics at The Royal Institute of Technology.^[8]

Selected works

• Grenander, Ulf (2012). A Calculus of Ideas: A Mathematical Study of Human Thought. World Scientific Publishing. ISBN 978-9814383189.
• Grenander, Ulf; Miller, Michael (2007). Pattern Theory: From Representation to Inference. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199297061.
• Grenander, Ulf (1996). Elements of Pattern Theory. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0801851889.
• Grenander, Ulf (1994). General Pattern Theory. Oxford Science Publications. ISBN 978-0198536710.
• Grenander, Ulf (1982). Mathematical Experiments on the Computer. Academic Press. ISBN 9780123017505.^[9]
• Grenander, Ulf (1981). Abstract Inference. Wiley. ISBN 978-0471082675.
• Grenander, Ulf (1963). Probabilities on Algebraic Structures. Wiley.^[10]
• Grenander, Ulf (1959). Probability and Statistics: The Harald Cramér Volume. Wiley.
• Szegő, Gábor; Grenander, Ulf (1958). Toeplitz forms and their applications. Chelsea.^[11]
• Grenander, Ulf; Rosenblatt, M (1957). Statistical Analysis of Stationary Time Series. American Mathematical Society. ISBN 978-0-8284-0320-7.^[12]

Notes

1. Ulf Grenander Obituary - Providence, RI | The Providence Journal, accessed 28 May 2016
2. Bentley, Jon (1984). "Programming pearls: algorithm design techniques". Communications of the ACM. 27 (9): 865–873. doi:10.1145/358234.381162. S2CID 207565329..
3. Mumford, David; Desolneux, Agnès (2010). Pattern Theory: The Stochastic Analysis of Real-World Signals. A K Peters/CRC Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-1568815794. The term "pattern theory" was coined by Ulf Grenander to distinguish his approach to the analysis of patterned structures in the world from "pattern recognition."
4. Grenander, Ulf (1998). "Strategies for seeing". Doc. Math. (Bielefeld) Extra Vol. ICM Berlin, 1998, vol. III. pp. 585–592.
5. KTH: Hedersdoktorer 1944–2008 Archived 2010-03-24 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 5 April 2009
6. Mukhopadhyay, Nitis (2006). "A conversation with Ulf Grenander". Statistical Science. 21 (3): 404–426. arXiv:math/0701092. Bibcode:2007math......1092M. doi:10.1214/088342305000000313. S2CID 62516244.
7. Grenander, Ulf (1950). Stochastic processes and statistical inference. Arkiv för matematik, 0004-2080; 1:17 (in Swedish). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
8. KTH: En kort historik över professorer vid Institutionen för Matematik, accessed 1 maj 2010
9. Perlis, Alan J. (1985). "Review: Mathematical experiments on the computer by Ulf Grenander" (PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.). 12 (1): 143–145. doi:10.1090/s0273-0979-1985-15322-4.
10. Furstenberg, Harry (1965). "Review: Probabilities on algebraic structures bu Ulf Grenander" (PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 71 (1): 132–135. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1965-11249-6.
11. Spitzer, F. (1959). "Review: Toeplitz Forms and Their Applications by Ulf Grenander and Gabor Szegő". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 65 (2): 97–101. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1959-10296-2.
12. Darling, Donald A. (1958). "Review: Statistical analysis of stationary time series by Ulf Grenander and Murray Rosenblatt" (PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 64 (2): 70–71. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1958-10172-x.

References

• Mukhopadhyay, Nitis (2006). "A conversation with Ulf Grenander". Statistical Science. 21 (3): 404–426. arXiv:math/0701092. Bibcode:2007math......1092M. doi:10.1214/088342305000000313. ISSN 0883-4237. MR 2339138. S2CID 62516244.

External links

• Sweden portal
• Biography portal

• Homepage of Ulf Grenander at Brown University
• Pattern Theory: Grenander's Ideas and Examples – a video lecture by David Mumford
• Ulf Grenander at the Mathematics Genealogy Project