Jerzy Neyman

Brief Biography

Born in Imperial Russia, Jerzy Splawa-Neyman was a Polish statistician who spent the first part of his career in Europe.  Coming from a line of Polish nobility and military leadership, Neyman grew in Kamyantes-Podilsky prior to enrolling at Kharkov University in 1912. There, he developed a fascination with probability and integration. During the Polish-Soviet War, the Russian government imprisoned Neyman as an enemy alien. He was sent to Poland after the conflict where he pursued a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Warsaw. There, Neyman authored his dissertation on the application of probability theory to agriculture.

Neyman spent his first postdoctoral years in London and Paris on a fellowship to study statistics with Karl Pearson and Emile Borel. In London, he developed a relationship with the Royal Statistical Society (a paper he presented at the Society in 1934 led the creation of modern scientific sampling). Neyman returned to Warsaw and established the Biometric Laboratory at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, he lectured at the University of Warsaw and the Central College of Agriculture.  To supplement his small academic’s salary and secure the financial future of his laboratory, Neyman took on a variety of consulting jobs, largely dealing with agricultural problems.

In 1934, Egon Pearson of University College, London offered Neyman a position at his laboratory. Neyman was quick to accept as the opportunity presented a solution to his financial problems. In 1935, he was promoted to a permanent Reader position in Pearson’s department and settled in London full-time.

Neyman remained in Britain for four years, continuing a close collaboration with Pearson in developing optimal tests and graduating two PhD students. During the London period, his attitude toward probability radically changed when he began to struggle between pro-Bayesian and anti-Bayesian arguments. After spending a six week tour in the United States, the University of California at Berkeley offered Neyman a position on their faculty. With the growing threat of war in Europe, he accepted and moved to California in 1938.

With the exception of war time projects in the early 1940s, Neyman spent a significant portion of his early years at Berkeley building up the university’s statistics program. Neyman often conflicted with the Mathematics Department leadership as he undertook the question to gain autonomy for his group. In 1955, he finally managed to establish an independent Department of Statistics at Berkeley. He had fostered a permanent staff of twelve members that included a number of former students. Neyman went on to supervise forty PhD students including the father of linear programming, George B. Dantzig.

Neyman received a number of honors in his lifetime. He was an elected member of the United State National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London. Neyman was also presented with the United States National Medal of Science and the highest honor of the Royal Statistical Society.

Other Biographies

Wikipedia Entry for Jerzy Neyman

American Statistical Association. Statisticians in History: Jerzy Neyman. Accessed November 13, 2018. (link) 

Lehmann E. L. (1994) Jerzy Neyman: 1984-1981. National Academy of Sciences: Washington, DC. (link) 

University of St. Andrews School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences. Neyman Biography. Accessed May 26, 2015. (link)