History: A Centennial Year Re ection on the Life andContributions of Mathematican David Blackwell(1919–2010)

摘要

Born on April 24, 1919 in Centralia, Illinois, a townof about 12,000, David Harold Blackwell spent ten yearsattending public schools there (in elementary school hewas twice promoted a year beyond his next grade level). In1935, at the age of sixteen, he entered the University of Illinoisin Champaign-Urbana, earning his AB degree in 1938,his AM in 1939, and his PhD in 1941, all in mathematics. Atthe age of 22 he had earned a PhD in mathematics and wasawarded a prestigious Rosenwald post-doctoral fellowshipat the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.Yes, David H. Blackwell was viewed as an exceptionallytalented person at that time, being only the seventh AfricanAmerican to earn a PhD in mathematics. However, no oneat the time envisioned that this was only the beginningof his more than fifty professional years where the annalsof history would come to recognize him as a world-classmathematician-statistician and a gifted teacher.