IMS Collections Vol. 0 (2009) 1–7 c Institute of Mathematical , 2009 1 1 arXiv: math.PR/0000021 2 2 3 3 4 Erich L. Lehmann, The Lehmann 4 5 5 th 6 Symposia, and November 20 1917 6 7 7 8 Javier Rojo?? 8 9 9 Rice University 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 The Lehmann Symposia originated as a result of a conversation I had in the 13 14 year 2001 with the, then, Director of the Centro de Investigaci´onen Matem´aticas 14 15 (CIMAT), Victor P´erez-Abreu.We both felt that there was an urgent need to 15 16 bring back into focus theoretical statistics and our proposed solution was a series 16 17 of Symposia that could serve as a forum for some of the exciting theoretical work 17 18 being done in statistics. The First Lehmann Symposium took place at CIMAT in 18 19 May of 2002. Most of the participants were Mexican colleagues. The program can 19 20 be seen at the site http://www.stat.rice.edu/lehmann/1st-Lehmann.html. The 20 21 second Lehmann Symposium – http://www.stat.rice.edu/lehmann/ – was held 21 22 in May of 2004 at the School of Engineering at Rice University. Initially, the venues 22 23 for the Symposia would alternate between CIMAT and Rice University. However, 23 24 for various reasons, some being financial, it was decided to hold the 3rd Lehmann 24 25 Symposium in the . 25 26 The original plans for the Third Lehmann Symposium were to hold the sym- 26 27 posium at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley dur- 27 28 ing the month of November of 2007. The Third Symposium, however, ended up 28 29 being held at Rice University for a second time during May of 2007. See http: 29 30 //www.stat.rice.edu/~jrojo/3rd-Lehmann/. I co-edited webcasts of the Second 30 31 and Third Symposia, and these webcasts are freely available to the public. They 31 32 can be found at the following sites: 32 33 http://webcast.rice.edu/webcast.php?action=details&event=408 — second 33 34 symposium, and 34 35 http://webcast.rice.edu/webcast.php?action=details&event=1057 — third 35 36 symposium. 36 37 But why was the venue for the Third Symposium changed from California back to 37 38 Texas, and why was the date changed from November 20th, 2007 to May 16th, 2007? 38 39 There were very good reasons for holding the opening of the Symposium on Novem- 39 40 ber 20th, 2007. For example, November 20th, 2007 was the silver anniversary of the 40 41 greatest big game of all time. See, for example: http://www.alumni.berkeley. 41 42 edu/KCAA_Multimedia/The_Play_1982.asp. Another good reason to start the Sym- 42 43 posium on November 20th was to co-celebrate, with our Mexican counterparts, the 43 44 start of the first major 20th century revolution. The Mexican revolution started on 44 45 November 20th, 1910 to remove the dictator Porfirio D´ıazwho had remained in 45 46 power for 30 years. This revolution led to the Constitution of 1917 and the start of 46 47 the Partido Revolucionario Institucional that held power until 2000 when a candi- 47 48 date from the Partido Acci´onNacional, Vicente Fox, won the Presidential election. 48 49 Francisco I. Madero, with the help of Francisco Villa, took over from Porfirio D´ıaz. 49 50 50 51 ??Department of Statistics, MS-138; Rice University; 6100 Main Street; Houston, TX 77005; 51 1 imsart-coll ver. 2008/08/29 file: Rojo3_Lehmann2.tex date: July 2, 2009 on November 20th, 1910 to remove the dictator Porfirio Diaz from power. This revolution led to the Constitution of 1917 and the start of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional that held power until the general election of 2000. Francisco I. Madero, supported by, among others, Francisco Villa, took over from Porfirio Diaz. 2 Javier Rojo

1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 Francisco Villa Porfirio Diaz Francisco I. Madero 13 14 14

15 The left and right images are taken from the Wikimedia Commons, and are available 15 th 16 fromT thehe UnitedConsitut Statesion of Library1917, si ofgne Congress’sd in Februa Printsry 5 andof tha Photographst year, is the Division current underMexican 16 digital records ID npcc-19554 and ggbain-01887, respectively. The middle image is in 17 Constitution. The year of 1917, as it turned out, was a very significant year in the history of the 17 the public domain and it was taken from Project Gutenberg, and is available from 18 worEnockld. (1912). 18 19 19 Some of the significant events of 1917 20 20 The Constitution of 1917, signed in February 5th of that year, is the current Mexican 21 January 28 - The United States ends search for Pancho Villa. 21 Constitution. The year of 1917, as it turned out, was a very significant year in the 22 22 historyFebru ofar they 5 - world. Mexican Constitution is adopted. 23 23 February 24 - World War I: United States ambassador to the United Kingdom Walter H. Page is 24 24 Some of the Significant Events of 1917 25 given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany offers to give the American 25 26 February 5 - TheSouthw Mexicanest back to Constitution Mexico, if Mexi isco w adoptedill declare by war the on the Mexican United St Congressates. in 26 27 theM Cityarch of31 Queretaro,- The United and State thiss take Constitutions possession of the continues Virgin Isla tonds beafte ther payi Mexicanng $25 mill Magnaion 27 28 28 Carta. to Denmark. 29 29 February 7 - The United States ends the search for Pancho Villa. The Mexican 30 April 6.- The United States declares war on Germany. 30 expedition, as it is known, was led by General Pershing and had the objective of 31 31 capturingApril 16 Francisco - Lenin (Pancho)arrives in Pe Villatrograd. who had crossed over and ransacked Columbus, 32 32 New Mexico. Pershing was unable to capture Villa, and after several encounters 33 33 with various groups, including the Mexican army, Pershing and his forces returned 34 34 to the United States in February 1917. 35 35 36 February 24 - President Woodrow Wilson is presented with a deciphered German 36 37 telegram – the Zimmermann telegram, in which Germany offers to give American 37 38 territory back to Mexico, if Mexico will declare war on the United States. 38 39 March 31 - The United States takes possession of the Virgin Islands after paying 39 40 $25 million to Denmark. 40 41 April 6 - As a result of the deciphering of the Zimmermann telegram, the United 41 42 States Congress declares war on Germany. 42 43 43 44 April 11 - Babe Ruth pitches for the Boston Red Sox and beats the New York 44 45 Yankees 10-3, allowing 3 hits. On January 5th, 1920, Ruth was traded to the New 45 46 York Yankees and thus started the Bambino Curse for the Red Sox. The curse was 46 47 finally broken 84 years later when the Sox defeated the Cardinals in the 2004 World 47 48 Series. 48 49 April 16 - Lenin arrives in Petrograd. 49 50 50 51 email: [email protected] 51

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1 May 17 - The paper “On the distribution of the correlation coefficient in small sam- 1 2 ple. Appendix I to the papers of “Student” and R. A. Fisher. A cooperative study”, 2 3 by H.E. Soper, A.W. Young, B.M. Cave, A. Lee and K. Pearson, (Biometrika 1917 3 4 11: 328-413; doi:10.1093/biomet/11.4.328), and the paper “I. Tables for estimating 4 5 the Probability that the Mean of a unique Sample of Observations lies between -∞ 5 6 and any given Distance of the Mean of the Population from which the Sample is 6 7 drawn” by “Student” (Biometrika 1917 11: 414-417; doi:10.1093/biomet/11.4.414) 7 8 are published. The former would include a criticism of Fisher’s maximum likelihood 8 9 principle that helped ignite a feud between Fisher and Pearson. 9 10 May 18 - The Selective Service Act passes the U.S. Congress giving the President 10 11 the power of conscription. 11 12 12 July 4 - Petrograd Street demonstration - The Bolshevik revolution looms in the 13 13 horizon. 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 17 18 18 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 23 24 24 25 25 26 26 27 27 28 28 29 29 30 30 31 Days of revolution - barricades at the Arcenal [i.e., Arsenal], Petrograd. The photo is 31 taken from the Library of Congress under lot 2398, reproduction number LC-USZ62- 32 25298, 1917. 32 33 33 34 34 November 7 - Bolshevik Revolution begins: The workers of St. Petersburg in 35 35 Russia, led by the Bolsheviks and the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, attacked 36 36 the ineffective Kerensky Provisional Government. 37 37 38 November 20 - Ukraine is declared a republic. 38 39 39 November 20, 1917 and Beyond 40 40 41 Amidst the shadows of war and civil unrest, a small burst of light began to shine 41 42 in Strasbourg, France. Erich Leo Lehmann was born November 20th, 1917 – a mere 42 43 7 months after The United States entered the First World War. 43 44 Some years later, at the age of 16, he and his family went to live in Switzerland 44 45 to avoid the Nazis. After five years in Switzerland, and two years in Cambridge, 45 46 Erich L. Lehmann arrived in the United States in 1940 with a letter of introduction 46 47 from the wife of Edmund Landau. Landau had passed away a couple of years earlier 47 48 from a heart attack. The letter of introduction was for Richard Courant who was 48 49 in New York and had been a colleague of Landau in G¨ottingen.After being asked 49 50 by Courant if he wanted to stay in New York or live in the United States, Lehmann 50 51 responded that he wanted to live in the United States and then followed Courant’s 51

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30 30 31 31 Erich Leo Lehmann in 1919 32 32 33 33 34 34 35 advice to go to an “up-and-coming university” in Berkeley, California. Upon his 35 36 arrival in Berkeley in 1941, Erich Lehmann met with Griffith C. Evans who had 36 37 been a mathematician at the Rice Institute, now Rice University. Evans had been 37 38 brought to Berkeley to develop the mathematics department that was in disarray. 38 39 Evans was an excellent mathematician and many of his contributions as a math- 39 40 ematician and administrator have been recorded in Morrey (1983) and Lehmann 40 41 (2007). As an administrator, Evans was able to attract to Berkeley some of the best 41 42 mathematicians of the time. With a broad vision for the mathematics department, 42 43 Evans supported a three-week visit by R. A. Fisher to Berkeley. The visit did not go 43 44 well. Reid (1992) writes in her book that, despite a generous endowed lectureship 44 45 whose terms required the lecturer to spend their time on campus to interact with 45 46 interested faculty, Fisher spent the first five days of his visit in San Francisco and 46 47 went back to England a day earlier “standing up a dinner in his honor”. Reid (1992) 47 48 writes that according to Raymond T. Birge, chair of the Physics department at the 48 49 time, “Fisher was the most conceited man he had ever met - ‘and that is saying 49 50 a lot with such competitors as Millikan et al!’ ” Birge put forth Neyman’s name 50 51 to Evans. Evans had never heard of Neyman but after some inquiring an offer was 51

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1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 17 18 18 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 23 24 24 25 25 26 26 27 27 28 28 29 29 30 30 31 31 Erich Leo Lehmann in 1924 32 32 33 33 34 34 35 made. Neyman accepted and a few years later, after an offer from Columbia became 35 36 available, was able to negotiate with Evans for the creation of a separate statistics 36 37 department. These and other fascinating details may be found in Lehmann (1993, 37 38 1996, and 2007) and Reid (1992) and other references in the bibliography. 38 39 During their first meeting, Evans offered him a probationary graduate student 39 40 status and six months later a teaching assistantship in the Mathematics Depart- 40 41 ment. With the advent of the Second World War, Evans suggested to change areas 41 42 of study and consider a more useful subject. Either Physics or Statistics would 42 43 be more useful than Mathematics. After completing the required course work, and 43 44 after returning from Guam where he and Joseph Hodges had served, it was time 44 45 for Erich L. Lehmann to begin work on a dissertation. A topic with a probabilistic 45 46 flavor was proposed by Pao-Lu Hsu after consulting with Neyman. Progress was 46 47 swift and as Lehmann prepared to write up some of the results, a reference led to 47 48 other references that led to the painful discovery that the results so far obtained 48 49 had been published a few decades earlier. At that time Neyman was invited as a 49 50 member of a delegation to observe the Greek elections. Concerned with the dis- 50 51 appointment of his student, and knowing that he might return until a few months 51

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1 later, Neyman asked Hsu to consider providing a new problem for Lehmann’s thesis. 1 2 Hsu suggested a new problem that he had thought about and planned to work on, 2 3 and a problem for which he already had some preliminary results. Lehmann came 3 4 to know about Hsu’s generosity some time later and had hoped to thank Hsu per- 4 5 sonally after Hsu’s return to Berkeley from Columbia, but this would never happen 5 6 as Hsu opted to return to China. With Neyman in Greece and Hsu back in China, 6 7 Neyman suggested George Polya as a surrogate advisor. Frequent visits to Polya 7 8 at Stanford finally yielded a thesis. A new problem presented itself in that Polya 8 9 was not a faculty member at Berkeley. Fortunately, Neyman was able to return in 9 10 time for the thesis defense. He had been asked to return to the United States as 10 11 his services were no longer needed in Greece. In effect, he had been dismissed for 11 12 insubordination. He had decided to investigate on his own the possibility that the 12 13 elections had been rigged. It thus happened that in 1946 Erich L. Lehmann received 13 14 the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The title of his thesis: “Optimum Tests of a 14 15 Certain Class of Hypotheses Specifying the Value of a Correlation Coefficient”. 15 16 Erich L. Lehmann stayed in Berkeley as a young faculty member and the “Rest 16 17 of the story” is well known. Besides his many influential publications, he was able 17 18 to produce 41-plus Ph.D. students. The following table provides the names of the 18 19 students and the year of graduation. 19 20 20 21 Colin Ross Blyth 1950 Gouri Kanta Bhattacharyya 1966 21 22 Fred Charles Andrews 1953 James Nwoye Adichie 1966 22 23 Allan Birnbaum 1954 Dattaprabhakar V. Gokhale 1966 23 Hendrik Salomom Konijn 1954 Frank Rudolph Hampel 1968 24 24 Balkrishna V. Sukhatme 1955 Wilhelmine von Turk Stefansky 1969 25 V. J. Chacko 1959 Louis Jaeckel 1969 25 26 Piotr Witold Mikulski 1961 Friedrich Wilhelm Scholz 1971 26 27 Madan Lal Puri 1962 Dan Anbar 1971 27 28 Krishen Lal Mehra 1962 Michael Denis Stuart 1972 28 Subha Bhuchongkul Sutchritpongsa 1962 Claude L. Guillier 1972 29 29 Shishirkumar Jogdeo 1962 Sherali Mavjibhai Makani 1972 30 Peter J. Bickel 1963 Howard J. M. D’Abrera 1973 30 31 Arnljot Høyland 1963 Hyun-Ju Yoo Jin 1974 31 32 R. Murty Ponnapalli 1964 Amy Poon Davis 1977 32 33 Milan Kumar Gupta 1964 Jan F. Bjørnstad 1978 33 Madabhushi Raghavachari 1964 William Paul Carmichael 1981 34 34 Vida Greenberg 1964 David Draper 1981 35 Kjell Andreas Doksum 1965 Wei-Yin Loh 1982 35 36 William Harvey Lawton 1965 Marc J. Sobel 1983 36 37 Shulamith Gross 1966 Javier Rojo 1984 37 Bruce Hoadley 1966 38 38 39 39 40 So why, then, was the date changed from November 20th to May 16th? After all, 40 41 it would have been a great way of celebrating Erich’s wonderful 90 years of life. 41 42 But that is precisely the issue. To the reader who does not know Erich L. Lehmann 42 43 personally, holding a conference on his birthday, a conference that is named after 43 44 him, would seem only natural. However, those close to him know very well that he is 44 45 very modest and an event like the Symposium held on his birthday, would be rather 45 46 uncomfortable for him. He thought that the meeting would turn into a birthday 46 47 celebration and he would not have it that way. The Lehmann Symposia should be 47 48 true to its beginnings: A meeting to showcase good theoretical work. Thus, it came 48 49 to be that the venue and the date for the 3rd Lehmann Symposium were changed. 49 50 As it was not possible to celebrate his 90th birthday with the symposium, this 50 51 volume is dedicated to Erich’s 90th birthday. I am sure that, given the opportunity, 51

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1 all his Ph.D. students listed above and colleagues around the world would join me 1 2 in wishing Erich Leo Lehmann many more wonderful years! Our lives have been 2 3 greatly enriched through our interactions, professional and social, with him. 3 4 4 5 5 Acknowledgements 6 6 7 7 The work of the author was partially supported by NSF Grant DMS-053246, NSA 8 8 Grant H98230-06-1-0099, and NSF REU Grant DMS-0552590. 9 9 10 10 11 References 11 12 12 13 [] Enock, Reginald C. (1912). Mexico: Its Ancient and Modern Civilisation, History, Political 13 Conditions, Topography, Natural Resources, Industries and General Development. Hume, M. 14 14 (ed.). London, T. Fisher Unwin. 15 [] DeGroot, Morris H. (1986). A conversation with Erich L. Lehmann. Statist. Sci., 1.2, 243–258. 15 16 [] Lehmann, E. L. (1993). The Fisher, Neyman-Pearson theories of testing hypotheses: one theory or 16 two? Journal of the American Statistical Association, 88.424, 1242–1249. 17 17 [] Lehmann, E. L. (1993). Mentors and early collaborators: reminiscences from the years 1940-1956 18 with an epilogue. Statist. Sci., 8.3, 331–341. 18 19 [] Lehmann, E. L. (1996). The creation and early history of the Berkeley statistics department. 19 Statistics, probability and game theory, IMS LNMS, 30, Inst. Math. Statist., Hayward, CA. 20 20 [] Lehmann, E. L. (1997). Testing statistical hypotheses: the story of a book. Statist. Sci., 12.1, 21 48–52. 21 22 [] Lehmann, E. L. (2004). Optimality and symposia: some history. In The First Erich L. Lehmann 22 Symposium - Optimality. J. Rojo and V. P´erez-Abreu (Eds.) IMS LNMS, 44, 1–10. 23 23 [] Lehmann, E. L. (2007). Reminiscences of a : The Company I Kept. Springer, New 24 York. 24 25 [] Morrey, C. B. (1983). Griffith Conrad Evans 1887–1973: A Biographical Memoir. National 25 Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C. 26 26 [] Reid, C. (1982). Neyman from Life. Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York-Tokyo. 27 27 28 28 29 29 30 30 31 31 32 32 33 33 34 34 35 35 36 36 37 37 38 38 39 39 40 40 41 41 42 42 43 43 44 44 45 45 46 46 47 47 48 48 49 49 50 50 51 51

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