Science & invention
Leonard Jimmie Savage
1917–1971 · mathematician, statistician
Detroit-born statistician whose Foundations of Statistics (1954) laid the groundwork for modern Bayesian statistics and decision theory.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
New Haven, Connecticut
aged 53- Birth name
- Leonard Ogashevitz
- Also known as
- L. J. Savage · Jimmie Savage
- Detroit years
- 1917–1941
- Field
- Science & invention
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Savage was born Leonard Ogashevitz in Detroit in 1917 and grew up in the city. Severe nearsightedness made school hard and led teachers to underrate him, but he went on to Wayne University in Detroit and then transferred to the University of Michigan, where he first studied chemical engineering before switching to mathematics; he took his bachelor's degree in 1938 and a doctorate in differential geometry in 1941. During World War II he worked in the Statistical Research Group at Columbia alongside Milton Friedman, with whom he wrote a classic 1948 paper on risk and utility. His book The Foundations of Statistics (1954) showed how rational choice can be built on personal, or subjective, probability, and it became a cornerstone of Bayesian statistics. He taught at Chicago, Michigan and Yale, and Friedman called him one of the few people he would unhesitatingly call a genius.
Highlights
- The Foundations of Statistics (1954), a cornerstone of Bayesian statistics
- Friedman–Savage utility function (1948), with Milton Friedman
- Studied at Wayne University, then University of Michigan (BS 1938, PhD 1941)
- Born and raised in Detroit
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · mid-1930s
Wayne State University
He began his university studies here before transferring to the University of Michigan.