Dantzig attended Powell Junior High School and Central High School. 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.[2][4]
George Dantzig received his B.S. from University of Maryland in 1936 in mathematics and physics. He earned his master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1937. After working as a junior statistician at the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1937 to 1939,[5] he enrolled in the doctoral program in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied statistics under Jerzy Neyman.
In 1939, a misunderstanding brought about surprising results. Near the beginning of a class, Professor Neyman wrote two problems on the blackboard. Dantzig arrived late and assumed that they were a homework assignment. According to Dantzig, they “seemed to be a little harder than usual”, but a few days later he handed in completed solutions for both problems, still believing that they were an assignment that was overdue.[4][6] Six weeks later, an excited Neyman eagerly told him that the “homework” problems he had solved were two of the most famous unsolved problems in statistics.[2][4] He had prepared one of Dantzig’s solutions for publication in a mathematical journal.[7] This story began to spread and was used as a motivational lesson demonstrating the power of positive thinking. Over time, some facts were altered, but the basic story persisted in the form of an urban legend and as an introductory scene in the movie Good Will Hunting.[6]
Dantzig recalled in a 1986 interview in the College Mathematics Journal, “A year later, when I began to worry about a thesis topic, Neyman just shrugged and told me to wrap the two problems in a binder and he would accept them as my thesis.”[8]
Years later, another researcher, Abraham Wald, was preparing to publish a paper where he had arrived at a conclusion for the second problem when he learned of Dantzig’s earlier solution. When Dantzig suggested publishing jointly, Wald simply added Dantzig’s name as co-author.[4][8][9]
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Dantzig attended Powell Junior High School and Central High School. 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.[2][4]
George Dantzig received his B.S. from University of Maryland in 1936 in mathematics and physics. He earned his master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1937. After working as a junior statistician at the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1937 to 1939,[5] he enrolled in the doctoral program in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied statistics under Jerzy Neyman.
In 1939, a misunderstanding brought about surprising results. Near the beginning of a class, Professor Neyman wrote two problems on the blackboard. Dantzig arrived late and assumed that they were a homework assignment. According to Dantzig, they “seemed to be a little harder than usual”, but a few days later he handed in completed solutions for both problems, still believing that they were an assignment that was overdue.[4][6] Six weeks later, an excited Neyman eagerly told him that the “homework” problems he had solved were two of the most famous unsolved problems in statistics.[2][4] He had prepared one of Dantzig’s solutions for publication in a mathematical journal.[7] This story began to spread and was used as a motivational lesson demonstrating the power of positive thinking. Over time, some facts were altered, but the basic story persisted in the form of an urban legend and as an introductory scene in the movie Good Will Hunting.[6]
Dantzig recalled in a 1986 interview in the College Mathematics Journal, “A year later, when I began to worry about a thesis topic, Neyman just shrugged and told me to wrap the two problems in a binder and he would accept them as my thesis.”[8]
Years later, another researcher, Abraham Wald, was preparing to publish a paper where he had arrived at a conclusion for the second problem when he learned of Dantzig’s earlier solution. When Dantzig suggested publishing jointly, Wald simply added Dantzig’s name as co-author.[4][8][9]