mathematics

Jeff Rosenthal

Jeff Rosenthal is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jeff Rosenthal rather than just read about it. In short: Jeffrey Seth Rosenthal (born October 13, 1967) is a Canadian statistician and nonfiction author. He is a professor in the University of Toronto's department of statistics, cross-appointed with its department of mathematics.

Key takeaways

Jeff Rosenthal belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jeff Rosenthal to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jeff Rosenthal from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jeffrey Seth Rosenthal (born October 13, 1967) is a Canadian statistician and nonfiction author. He is a professor in the University of Toronto's department of statistics, cross-appointed with its department of mathematics.

Education and career Rosenthal graduated from Woburn Collegiate Institute in 1984, and received his B.Sc. (in mathematics, physics, and computer science) from the University of Toronto in 1988, and his Ph.D. in mathematics ("Rates of Convergence for Gibbs Sampler and Other Markov Chains") from Harvard University in 1992, supervised by Persi Diaconis. He was an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota from 1992 to 1993. Rosenthal began his career in the Department of Statistics at the University of Toronto as an assistant professor in 1993, became an associate professor in 1997, and has been a full professor since 2000. Rosenthal has written numerous research papers about the theory of Markov chain Monte Carlo and other statistical computation algorithms, many joint with Gareth O. Roberts. He has also written a graduate textbook on probability theory and co-authored an undergraduate textbook on probability and statistics, and supervised numerous student research projects.

Public engagements In 2005 Rosenthal wrote a book for the general public, Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities, which was a bestseller in Canada and has been published in ten languages. He has been interviewed by the media about such diverse topics as crime statistics, pedestrian deaths, gambling probabilities, and television game shows, and has appeared on William Shatner's Weird or What?. His Wired Q&A video received 2.5 million views. In 2006, Rosenthal did the statistical analysis used by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television news magazine The Fifth Estate to expose the Ontario lottery retailer fraud scandal, which was debated in the Ontario provincial legislature. In 2010 his research with Albert H. Yoon about the U.S. Supreme Court was quoted in The New York Times. His statistical analysis refuted suspicions by former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik about Hikaru Nakamura's long online chess winning streaks. He has also written about the Monty Hall problem.

Honors and awards Rosenthal received the CRM-SSC Prize in 2006, the COPSS Presidents' Award in 2007, the Statistical Society of Canada Gold Medal in 2013, and a Faculty of Arts & Science Outstanding Teaching Award in 1998. He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 2005, and of the Royal Society of Canada in 2012.

Personal life Rosenthal's father Peter Rosenthal (1941–2024) and mother Helen Stephanie Rosenthal (1942–2017) were originally from Queens, New York City. They emigrated to Canada in 1967 where both of them became math professors at the University of Toronto. Besides his research, Rosenthal performs music and improvisational comedy, including at The Bad Dog Theatre Company. He performed musical accompaniment for the sketch comedy show Middle Raged by Geri Hall and Gary Pearson. Jeffrey Rosenthal is married to Margaret Fulford, who is the University College Librarian. His father-in-law was journalist Robert Fulford.

Bibliography Duanmu, Haosui; Rosenthal, Jeffrey S.; Weiss, William (2021). Ergodicity of markov processes via nonstandard analysis. American Mathematical Society. ISBN 978-1-4704-6813-2. OCLC 1284944707. Rosenthal, Jeffrey S. (2019). A first look at stochastic processes. New Jersey: World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-12-0790-7. OCLC 1107856889. Rosenthal, Jeffrey S. (2018). Knock on wood : luck, chance, and the meaning of everything. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-1-4434-5307-3. OCLC 1047653556. Evans, Michael; Rosenthal, Jeffrey S. (2010). Probability and statistics : the science of uncertainty (2nd ed.). New York: W.H. Freeman and Co. ISBN 978-1-4292-2462-8. OCLC 473463742. Rosenthal, Jeffrey S. (2006). A first look at rigorous probability theory (2nd ed.). Singapore: World Scientific. ISBN 981-270-371-3. OCLC 81144993. Rosenthal, Jeffrey S. (2006). Struck by lightning : the curious world of probabilities. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press. ISBN 0-309-09737-1. OCLC 62742569.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jeff Rosenthal

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jeff Rosenthal claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jeff Rosenthal before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jeff Rosenthal ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jeff Rosenthal

In research: Jeff Rosenthal appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jeff Rosenthal in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jeff Rosenthal is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1967 births, 21st-century Canadian statisticians, Academic staff of the University of Toronto Faculty of Arts and Science, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jeff Rosenthal outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Jeff Rosenthal in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jeff Rosenthal means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jeff Rosenthal out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jeff Rosenthal in simple terms?

Why does Jeff Rosenthal matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jeff Rosenthal?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jeff Rosenthal.