mathematics

Peter Whittle (mathematician)

Peter Whittle (mathematician) 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 Peter Whittle (mathematician) rather than just read about it. In short: Peter Whittle (27 February 1927 – 10 August 2021) was a mathematician and statistician from New Zealand, working in the fields of stochastic nets, optimal control, time series analysis, stochastic optimisation and stochastic dynamics. From 1967 to 1994, he was the Churchill Professor of Mathematics for Operational Research at the University of Cambridge.[1] Career Whittle was born in Wellington.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Peter Whittle (27 February 1927 – 10 August 2021) was a mathematician and statistician from New Zealand, working in the fields of stochastic nets, optimal control, time series analysis, stochastic optimisation and stochastic dynamics. From 1967 to 1994, he was the Churchill Professor of Mathematics for Operational Research at the University of Cambridge.[1]

Career Whittle was born in Wellington. He graduated from the University of New Zealand in 1947 with a BSc in mathematics and physics and in 1948 with an MSc in mathematics. He then moved to Uppsala, Sweden in 1950 to study for his PhD with Herman Wold (at Uppsala University). His thesis, Hypothesis Testing in Time Series, generalised Wold's autoregressive representation theorem for univariate stationary processes to multivariate processes. Whittle's thesis was published in 1951[2]. A synopsis of Whittle's thesis also appeared as an appendix to the second edition of Wold's book on time-series analysis. Whittle remained in Uppsala at the Statistics Institute as a docent until 1953, when he returned to New Zealand. In New Zealand, Whittle worked at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in the Applied Mathematics Laboratory (later named the Applied Mathematics Division). In 1959 Whittle was appointed to a lectureship in Cambridge University. Whittle was appointed Professor of Mathematical statistics at the University of Manchester in 1961. After six years in Manchester, Whittle returned to Cambridge as the Churchill Professor of Mathematics for Operational Research, a post he held until his retirement in 1994. From 1973, he was also Director of the Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge. He was a fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. He died in Cambridge, England.

Recognition Whittle was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1978, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1981. The Royal Society awarded him their Sylvester Medal in 1994 in recognition of his "major distinctive contributions to time series analysis, to optimisation theory, and to a wide range of topics in applied probability theory and the mathematics of operational research". In 1986, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences awarded Whittle the Lanchester Prize for his book Systems in Stochastic Equilibrium (ISBN 0-471-90887-8) and the John von Neumann Theory Prize in 1997 for his "outstanding contributions to the theory of operations research and management science". He was elected to the 2002 class of Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

Personal life In 1951, Whittle married a Finnish woman, Käthe Blomquist, whom he had met in Sweden. The Whittle family has six children.

Bibliography

Books Whittle, P. (1951). Hypothesis testing in times series analysis. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri AB. Whittle, P. (1963). Prediction and Regulation. English Universities Press. Republished as: Whittle, P. (1983). Prediction and Regulation by Linear Least-Square Methods. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-1148-3. Whittle, P. (1970). Probability (Library of university mathematics). Penguin. ISBN 0-14-080085-9. Republished as: Whittle, P. (30 April 1976). Probability. John Wiley and Sons Ltd. ISBN 0-471-01657-8. Whittle, P. (28 July 1971). Optimization Under Constraints. John Wiley and Sons Ltd. ISBN 0-471-94130-1. Whittle, P. (4 August 1982). Optimization Over Time. John Wiley and Sons Ltd. ISBN 0-471-10120-6. Whittle, P. (April 1983). Optimization Over Time: Dynamic Programming and Stochastic Control. John Wiley and Sons Ltd. ISBN 0-471-10496-5. Whittle, P. (4 June 1986). Systems in Stochastic Equilibrium. John Wiley and Sons Ltd. ISBN 0-471-90887-8. Whittle, P. (April 1990). Risk-Sensitive Optimal Control. John Wiley and Sons Ltd. ISBN 0-471-92622-1. Whittle, P. (14 May 1992). Probability Via Expectation (3rd ed.). Springer Verlag. ISBN 0-387-97758-9. Republished as: Whittle, P. (20 April 2000). Probability Via Expectation (4th ed.). Springer. ISBN 0-387-98955-2. Whittle, P. (18 July 1996). Optimal Control: Basics and Beyond. John Wiley and Sons Ltd. ISBN 0-471-95679-1. Whittle, P. (8 December 1998). Neural Nets and Chaotic Carriers. John Wiley and Sons Ltd. ISBN 0-471-98541-4. Whittle, P. (31 May 2007). Networks: Optimisation and Evolution. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521871006.

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Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter Whittle (mathematician)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter Whittle (mathematician) 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 Peter Whittle (mathematician) 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 Peter Whittle (mathematician) 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 Peter Whittle (mathematician)

In research: Peter Whittle (mathematician) 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 Peter Whittle (mathematician) 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: Peter Whittle (mathematician) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1927 births, 2021 deaths, Academics of the University of Manchester, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter Whittle (mathematician) 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 Peter Whittle (mathematician) in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter Whittle (mathematician) in simple terms?

Why does Peter Whittle (mathematician) 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 Peter Whittle (mathematician)?

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 Peter Whittle (mathematician).