mathematics

Lawrence Shepp

Lawrence Shepp 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 Lawrence Shepp rather than just read about it. In short: Lawrence Alan Shepp (September 9, 1936, in Brooklyn, NY – April 23, 2013, in Tucson, AZ) was an American mathematician, specializing in statistics and computational tomography. Shepp obtained his PhD from Princeton University in 1961 with a dissertation titled Recurrent Sums of Random Variables.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Lawrence Alan Shepp (September 9, 1936, in Brooklyn, NY – April 23, 2013, in Tucson, AZ) was an American mathematician, specializing in statistics and computational tomography. Shepp obtained his PhD from Princeton University in 1961 with a dissertation titled Recurrent Sums of Random Variables. His advisor was William Feller. He joined Bell Laboratories in 1962. He joined Rutgers University in 1997. He joined University of Pennsylvania in 2010. His work in tomography has had biomedical imaging applications, and he has also worked as professor of radiology at Columbia University (1973–1996), as a mathematician in the radiology service of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Awards and honors 2014: IEEE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award 2012: Became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society 1992: Elected member of the Institute of Medicine 1989: Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences 1979: IEEE Distinguished Scientist Award in 1979 1979: Lester R. Ford Award (with Joseph Kruskal)

See also Fishburn–Shepp inequality Shepp–Logan phantom Shepp–Olkin conjecture Coupon collector's problem Discrete tomography Dubins path Gaussian process Hook length formula Parallel parking problem Sieve estimator Ridge function

References

External links

Lawrence Shepp at the Mathematics Genealogy Project Obituary at Penn

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lawrence Shepp

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lawrence Shepp 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 Lawrence Shepp 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 Lawrence Shepp 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 Lawrence Shepp

In research: Lawrence Shepp 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 Lawrence Shepp 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: Lawrence Shepp is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1936 births, 2013 deaths, 20th-century American statisticians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lawrence Shepp 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.

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How to study Lawrence Shepp in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lawrence Shepp 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 Lawrence Shepp out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lawrence Shepp in simple terms?

Why does Lawrence Shepp 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 Lawrence Shepp?

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 Lawrence Shepp.