mathematics

Thomas S. Ferguson

Thomas S. Ferguson 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 Thomas S. Ferguson rather than just read about it. In short: Thomas Shelburne Ferguson (born December 14, 1929) is an American mathematician and statistician. He is a professor emeritus of mathematics and statistics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Thomas Shelburne Ferguson (born December 14, 1929) is an American mathematician and statistician. He is a professor emeritus of mathematics and statistics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Education and career Ferguson was born in Oakland, California and was raised nearby in Alameda, California. He majored in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, and completed his Ph.D. there in 1956. His dissertation had two separately-titled parts, On Existence of Linear Regression in Linear Structural Relations and A Method of Generating Best Asymptotically Normal Estimates with Application to the Estimation of Bacterial Densities; it was supervised by Lucien Le Cam. After another year teaching at Berkeley, he moved to the University of California, Los Angeles in 1957. He was the supervisor of numerous doctorates.

Contributions Ferguson is the author of:

Mathematical Statistics: A Decision Theoretic Approach (Academic Press, 1967) A Course in Large Sample Theory (Chapman & Hall, 1996) A Course in Game Theory (World Scientific, 2020) His research contributions include the analysis of the "big match" zero-sum game with David Blackwell, a result that eventually led to the proof of existence of equilibrium values for limiting average payoff in all stochastic games. Ferguson is especially known for introducing the Dirichlet process, a foundational contribution to Bayesian nonparametric statistics i.e. the Ferguson distribution on prior probability; Ferguson's Dirichlet process). Ferguson's pairing property in the analysis of misère subtraction games; and contributions to the theory of optimal stopping as e.g. co-authored work on Robbins' problem. His work also connects decision-theoretic statistics, game theory, stochastic games, and optimal stopping.

Recognition Ferguson was named a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 1967, and a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1985. He was given the Belgian International Francqui Chair of Science in 1998. A festschrift in Ferguson's honor edited by F. Thomas Bruss and Lucien Le Cam was published in 2000.

Personal life Ferguson married mathematician Beatriz Rossello, and is the father of poker player Chris Ferguson. He has coauthored papers with Chris Ferguson on the mathematics of poker and other games of chance.

References

External links Home page

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thomas S. Ferguson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thomas S. Ferguson 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 Thomas S. Ferguson 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 Thomas S. Ferguson 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 Thomas S. Ferguson

In research: Thomas S. Ferguson 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 Thomas S. Ferguson 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: Thomas S. Ferguson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1929 births, 20th-century American statisticians, 21st-century American statisticians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thomas S. Ferguson 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 Thomas S. Ferguson in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Thomas S. Ferguson in simple terms?

Why does Thomas S. Ferguson 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 Thomas S. Ferguson?

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 Thomas S. Ferguson.