mathematics

Martin Schumacher

Martin Schumacher 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 Martin Schumacher rather than just read about it. In short: Martin Schumacher (born June 28, 1950) is a German statistician. He was the head of the Institute for Medical Biometry and Statistics of the Medical Center of the University of Freiburg from 1986 until 2017.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Martin Schumacher (born June 28, 1950) is a German statistician. He was the head of the Institute for Medical Biometry and Statistics of the Medical Center of the University of Freiburg from 1986 until 2017.

Life and work Martin Schumacher graduated from the University of Dortmund with a diploma in mathematics and statistics in 1974. He stayed in Dortmund and earned his PhD in 1977. Between 1975 and 1979 and 1983 and 1986 he first worked as research assistant for Prof. Siegfried Schach and then as Professor for Statistics in Science. In between those periods of time in Dortmund, he spent the years 1979-1983 in Heidelberg at the Institute for Medicinal Statistics at the University of Heidelberg, headed by Herbert Immich. There he qualified as a professor in 1982 with a thesis focusing on the analysis of survival time. In 1984 he worked as a guest professor at the Department of Biostatistics of the University of Washington in Seattle, WA (USA). Shortly after returning to the statistics department of the University of Dortmund he was offered a professorship at the Institute for Medical Biometry and Statistics of University Medical Center Freiburg. He became the head of the institute from April 1986 until his retirement in May 2017. Immediately after starting his job in Freiburg he founded a center for methodological support of therapy studies, one of the first of its kind at a German university medical center. In 1999 one of the first coordination centers for clinical studies (short KKS = Koordinierungszentrum für Klinische Studien) in Germany was founded at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg on the initiative of Martin Schumacher. In addition to doing research another focus of Martin Schumacher was the training and mentorship of young research, so teaching was a priority. The book "Methodik Klinischer Studien" (Methodology of Clinical Trials) by Schumacher and Schulgen is not only the first book on this topic in German, but also the standard textbook in Germany. Martin Schumacher was the dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of Freiburg between 2001 and 2003. He was a member of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and there has been a cooperation with researchers and scientists in the fields of mathematics, physics, biology and computer science within the framework of the interdisciplinary Freiburg Center for Data Analysis and Modeling (FDM). Due to several research projects initiated and led by Martin Schumacher the institute has become an internationally renowned research hub for biostatistics in Germany. There were several international symposia focused on methodology, Martin Schumacher also recurrently hosted conferences on medical statistics in Oberwolfach and the International Biometrical Conference (IBC) in 2002, as well as the third meeting of the German Consortium in Statistics (DAGStat 2013). His international reputation can also be gleaned by the fact that he was invited to give the 21st Bradford Hill Memorial Lecture in 2012. Under the clinical aspect the Cochrane Collaboration/German Cochrane Center as well as the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS) need to be mentioned. Martin Schumacher is the (co-)author of over 250 scientific publications and oversaw more than thirty dissertations. He published many papers about various methodological and statistical aspects of the planning and analysis of studies in the field of clinical epidemiology. Here, the implementation of the newly developed statistical methods in clinical practice and therefore a close cooperation with various clinical partners was the focus of the research.

Publications Methodik klinischer Studien: Methodische Grundlagen der Planung, Durchführung und Auswertung. Martin Schumacher, Gabi Schulgen, Springer 2008. Competing Risks and Multistate Models with R. Jan Beyersmann, Arthur Allignol, Martin Schumacher, Springer 2012.

Honors Bradford Hill Memorial Lecture (2012) Honorary member of the German Chapter of the International Biometrical Society (2014) Honorary member of the International Society for Clinical Biostatistics (2015) Honorary Life Member of the International Biometric Society (2018)

External links Institute webpage Martin Schumacher on the Mathematics Genealogy Project

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Martin Schumacher

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Martin Schumacher 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 Martin Schumacher 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 Martin Schumacher 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 Martin Schumacher

In research: Martin Schumacher 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 Martin Schumacher 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: Martin Schumacher is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1950 births, Academic staff of the University of Freiburg, Biostatisticians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Martin Schumacher 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 Martin Schumacher in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Martin Schumacher in simple terms?

Why does Martin Schumacher 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 Martin Schumacher?

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 Martin Schumacher.