http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8s75gwd No online items Guide to the George B. Dantzig Papers SC0826 Daniel Hartwig & Jenny Johnson Department of Special Collections and University Archives March 2012 Green Library 557 Escondido Mall Stanford 94305-6064 [email protected] URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc Guide to the George B. Dantzig SC0826 1 Papers SC0826 Language of Material: English Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives Title: George B. Dantzig papers creator: Dantzig, George Bernard, 1914-2005 Identifier/Call Number: SC0826 Physical Description: 91 Linear Feet Date (inclusive): 1937-1999 Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 36-48 hours in advance. For more information on paging collections, see the department's website: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/spc.html. Information about Access The materials are open for research use. Audio-visual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy. Ownership & Copyright All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94305-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html. Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes. Cite As [identification of item], George B. Dantzig Papers (SC0826). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif. Biographical / Historical George Bernard Dantzig (November 8, 1914 – May 13, 2005) was an American mathematical scientist who made important contributions to operations research, computer science, economics, and statistics. Dantzig is known for his development of the simplex algorithm, an algorithm for solving linear programming problems, and his work with linear programming. In statistics, Dantzig solved two open problems in statistical theory, which he had mistaken for homework after arriving late to a lecture of Jerzy Neyman. Dantzig was the Professor Emeritus of Transportation Sciences and Professor of Operations Research and of Computer Science at Stanford. Born in Portland, Oregon, George Bernard Dantzig was named after George Bernard Shaw, the Irish writer. His father, Tobias Dantzig, was born in Shavli Lithuania, a Jew living in the Pale of Russia. He received his Ph.D. at Indiana University, taught at various universities including Johns Hopkins before he moving to the University of Md., where he transformed the mathematics department from that of an agriculture school to a research math department. He was chairman of the department for some time. His field of interest was geometry. He was a descendent of Rabbi Abraham Danzig of Vilna, known as the Chaye Odom. His mother, Anja Ourisson (nee Uryson) Dantzig was born in Lodz, Poland, attended the Sorbonne, where she also studied mathematics. In the US, she earned bachelors and masters degrees in French literature, but translated Slavic languages at the Library of Congress, where she was assistant head of the division. She was related to the Russian mathematician Pavel Uryson. Dantzig's parents met during their study at the Sorbonne University in Paris, where Tobias studied mathematics under Henri Poincaré, after whom Dantzig's brother was named. The Dantzigs immigrated to the United States, where they settled in Portland, Oregon. Early in the 1920s the Dantzig family moved from Baltimore to Washington. His mother became assistant chief Slavic translator at the Library of Congress, and his father became chairman of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Maryland, College Park, George attended Powell Junior High School and Central High School; one of his friends there was Abraham Seidenberg, who was a professor of Mathematics at UC Berkeley. By the time he reached high school he was already fascinated by geometry, and this interest was further nurtured by his father, challenging him with complicated problems, particularly in projective geometry. George Dantzig earned bachelor's degrees in mathematics and physics from the University of Maryland in 1936, and his master's degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1938. After a two-year period at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, he enrolled in the doctoral program in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied statistics under Jerzy Neyman. Guide to the George B. Dantzig SC0826 2 Papers SC0826 With the outbreak of World War II, George took a leave of absence from the doctoral program at Berkeley to join the U.S. Air Force Office of Statistical Control. In 1946, he returned to Berkeley to complete the requirements of his program and received his Ph.D. that year. Although he had a faculty offer from Berkeley, he returned to the Air Force as mathematical advisor to the comptroller. In 1952 Dantzig joined the mathematics division of the RAND Corporation. By 1960 he became a professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at UC Berkeley, where he founded and directed the Operations Research Center. In 1966 he joined the Stanford faculty as Professor of Operations Research and of Computer Science. A year later, the Program in Operations Research became a full-fledged department. In 1973 he founded the Systems Optimization Laboratory (SOL) there. On a sabbatical leave that year, he headed the Methodology Group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. Later he became the C. A. Criley Professor of Transportation Sciences at Stanford, and kept going, well beyond his mandatory retirement in 1985. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. George was the recipient of many honors, including the first John von Neumann Theory Prize in 1974, the National Medal of Science in 1975, an honorary doctorate from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1976. The Mathematical Programming Society honored Dantzig by creating the George B. Dantzig Prize, bestowed every three years since 1982 on one or two people who have made a significant impact in the field of mathematical programming. Dantzig died on May 13, 2005, in his home in Stanford, California, of complications from diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He was 90 years old. Related Materials Related George B. Dantzig papers donated to the University of Maryland (https://www.lib.umd.edu/) by Jessica Klass. Subjects and Indexing Terms Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Higher). Mathematicians -- United States. Computer science -- Study and teaching Computer science -- Research Systems programming (Computer science) Dantzig, George Bernard, 1914-2005 Additional material Accession ARCH-2005-363 box 1, folder 1 On a Class of Distributions that Approach the Normal Distribution Function 1939 box 1, folder 2 On the Non-Existence of Tests of Students' Hypothesis Involving Power Functions Independent of Sigma 1940 box 1, folder 3 A Theorem on Linear Inequalities 1948, January 5 box 1, folder 4 A Proof of the Equivalence of the Programming Problem and the Game Problem, in T.C. Koopmans (ed.) box 1, folder 5 Programming of Interdependent Activities, II: Mathematical Model 1951 box 1, folder 6 Maximization of a Linear Function of VariablesSubject to Linear Inequalities box 1, folder 7 Application of the Simplex Method to the Transportation Problem 1951 box 1, folder 8 Programming in a Linear Structure 1949 box 1, folder 9 Linear Programming 1951 box 1, folder 10 On the Fundamental Lemma of Neyman and Pearson 1591 box 1, folder 11 The Generalized Simplex Method for Minimizing a Linear Form Under Linear Inequality Constraints 1955 box 1, folder 12 The Fixed Charge Problem 1954 box 1, folder 13 A Duality Theorem Based on the Simplex Method 1952 box 1, folder 14 Alternate Algorithm for the Revised Simplex Method Using Product Form for the Inverse 1953 box 1, folder 15 The Dual Simplex Algorithm (Notes on Linear Programming Part VII) 1954 box 1, folder 16 Upper Bounds, Secondary Constraints, and Block Triangularity in Linear Programming (Notes on Linear Programming: Part VIII, XI, X) 1954 box 1, folder 17 Notes on Linear Programming: Part XI, Composite Simplex-Dual Simplex Algorithm 1954 Guide to the George B. Dantzig SC0826 3 Papers SC0826 Additional material Accession ARCH-2005-363 box 1, folder 18 Solution for a Large-Scale Traveling Salesman Problem 1954 box 1, folder 19 Minimizing the Number of Tankers to Meet a Fixed Schedule 1956 box 1, folder 20 The Product Form for the Inverse in the Simplex Method 1954 box 1, folder 21 A Comment on Eddie's "Traffic Delays at Toll Booths" 1954 box 1, folder 22 Linear Programming Under Uncertainty 1955 box 1, folder 23 Optimal Solution of a Dynamic Leontief Model with Substitution (Notes on Linear Programming: Part XIII) 1955 box 1, folder 24 A Production Smoothing Problem 1955 box 1, folder 25 Developments in Linear Programming 1955 box 1, folder 26 Constructive Proof of the Min-Max Theorem 1956 box 1, folder 27 Recent