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Willem van Zwet

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Willem van Zwet
Born31 March 1934
Leiden, Netherlands
Died2 July 2020(2020-07-02) (aged 86)
Oegstgeest, Netherlands
NationalityDutch
OccupationMathematician
Scientific career
Thesis Convex Transformations of Random Variables[1]  (1964)
Doctoral advisorJan Hemelrijk
Doctoral studentsSara van de Geer
Aad van der Vaart

Willem Rutger van Zwet (31 March 1934 – 2 July 2020) was a Dutch mathematical statistician.[2] He was a professor at Leiden University between 1968 and 1999.

Biography

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Van Zwet was born on 31 March 1934 in Leiden.[3] Van Zwet obtained his doctoral degree in 1964 under the supervision of Jan Hemelrijk at the University of Amsterdam with a thesis titled "Convex Transformations of Random Variables".[4] After that, he worked at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica in Amsterdam, and became a lector of statistics at Leiden University in 1964 and was named professor in 1968. He retired in 1999.[3]

From 1992 to 1999, van Zwet was the Director of the Thomas Stieltjes Institute of Mathematics. He co-founded Eurandom in 1997, and served as its director until 2000. From 1997 to 1999, he was also the President of the International Statistical Institute.

Van Zwet was a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and a member of the Academia Europaea since 1990.[5] He received the Humboldt Prize in 2006. He won the Adolphe Quetelet Medal in 1993, and had been a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society since 1978. In 1979, he became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[6] In 1996, he was made Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion, and was named Doctoris Honoris causa of Charles University the following year. He died on 2 July 2020 in Oegstgeest.[3]

References

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  1. ^ Willem van Zwet at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. ^ "In Memoriarium: William van Zwet". International Statistical Institute. 2 July 2020.
  3. ^ a b c "Willem Rutger van Zwet". Leiden University. Archived from the original on 9 July 2020.
  4. ^ "Willem Rutger van Zwet". North Dakota State University.
  5. ^ "Willem van Zwet". Academia Europaea. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019.
  6. ^ "Prof. dr. w.r. Willem van Zwet" (in Dutch). KNAW genootschap. Archived from the original on 8 July 2020.