The passing of Stephen Fienberg today is another huge loss for the statistics community. Carnegie Mellon University released this obituary this morning.
Steve was born and raised in Toronto, and completed his undergraduate training in mathematics and statistics at the University of Toronto before moving to Harvard University for his Ph.D.. His contributions to statistics, and to the promotion of statistical science, were immense.
As the CMU News noted:"His many honors include the 1982 Committee of Presidents of Statistical Society President's Award for Outstanding Statistician Under the Age of 40; the 002 ASA Samuel S. Wilks Award for his distinguished career in statistics; the first Statistical Society of Canada's Lise Manchester Award in 2008 to recognize excellence in state-of-the-art statistical work on problems of public interest; the 2015 National Institute of Statistical Sciences Jerome Sacks Award for Cross-Disciplinary Research; the 2015 R.A. Fisher Lecture Award from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies and the ISBA 2016 Zellner Medal.
Fienberg published more than 500 technical papers, brief papers, editorials and discussions. He edited 19 books, reports and other volumes and co-authored seven books, including 1999's "Who Counts? The Politics of Census-Taking in Contemporary America," which he called "one of his proudest achievements." "There at least three terrific interviews with Steve that we have to remind us of the breadth of his contributions:
- Interview With Steve Fienberg, by Sam Behseta and Aleksandra Slavkovic.
- A Conversation With Stephen E. Fienberg, by Miron Straf and Judith Tanur.
- "In most places, not only are statisticians not in control of Big Data efforts and data science, but sometimes they are totally excluded or at best, marginalised." An interview with Stephen Fienberg, in Statistics Views.
