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Undid revision 993129406 by Femkemilene (talk); A negative blog opinion of famous mathematician and Fields Medalist Timothy Gowers was accepted as a reliable source, but when a positive opinion by the same source was added, that same user now rejected that blog for not being a primary source and deleted the paragraph. This treatment appears to violate Wikipedia guidelines for BLPs.
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{{short description|American mathematician}}
{{short description|American mathematician (born 1943)}}
{{Infobox scientist
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Ted Hill
| name = Ted Hill
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| birth_name = Theodore Preston Hill
| birth_name = Theodore Preston Hill
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1943|12|28}}
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1943|12|28}}
| birth_place = [[Flatbush, New York]], U.S.
| birth_place = [[Flatbush, Brooklyn|Flatbush]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.
| death_date =
| death_date =
| death_place =
| death_place =
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}}
}}


'''Theodore Preston Hill''' (born December 28, 1943), [[professor emeritus]] at the [[Georgia Institute of Technology]], is an American [[mathematician]] specializing mainly in [[probability theory]]. He is an Elected Member of the [[International Statistical Institute]] (1993), and an Elected Fellow of the [[Institute of Mathematical Statistics]] (1999).
⚫
'''Theodore Preston Hill''' (born December 28, 1943) is an [[United States|American]] [[mathematician]]. He is known for his research on mathematical [[probability theory]], in particular for his work on [[Benford's law]],<ref name="BraseBrase2014">{{cite book|last1=Brase|first1=Charles Henry|last2=Brase|first2=Corrinne Pellillo|title=Understandable Statistics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a8OiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA436|accessdate=25 February 2014|date=2014-01-01|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=9781305142909|pages=436–}}</ref> and for his work in the theories of [[optimal stopping]] ([[secretary problems]]) and [[fair division]], in particular the [[Hill-Beck land division problem]].


==Contributions==
⚫
Born in [[Flatbush, New York]], he studied at the [[United States Military Academy at West Point]] (Distinguished Graduate of the Class of 1966), and [[Stanford University]] (M.S. in [[Operations Research]]). After graduating from the [[U.S. Army Ranger School]] and serving as an Army Captain in the Combat Engineers of the [[25th Infantry Division (United States)|25th Infantry Division]] in Vietnam, he returned to study mathematics at the [[University of Göttingen]] ([[Fulbright Scholar]]), the [[University of California at Berkeley]] (M.A., Ph.D. under advisor [[Lester Dubins]]), and as NATO/NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at [[Leiden University]].
⚫
Hill discovered what many consider to be the definitive proof of [[Benford's law]].<ref name="BraseBrase2014">{{cite book|last1=Brase|first1=Charles Henry|last2=Brase|first2=Corrinne Pellillo|title=Understandable Statistics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a8OiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA436|accessdate=25 February 2014|date=2014-01-01|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=9781305142909|pages=436–}}</ref><ref name="Murtagh2023">{{cite web|last1=Murtagh|first1=Jack|title=What Is Benford’s Law? Why This Unexpected Pattern of Numbers Is Everywhere|date=2023-05-08|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-benfords-law-why-this-unexpected-pattern-of-numbers-is-everywhere/}}</ref> He is also known for his research in the theories of [[optimal stopping]] (including [[secretary problems]] and [[prophet inequality]] problems) and of [[fair division]], in particular the [[Hill-Beck land division problem]].


Hill has attracted widespread attention for a paper on the [[variability hypothesis]], the theory that men exhibit greater variability than women in genetically controlled traits that he wrote with [[Sergei Tabachnikov]].<ref name="TheScientist">{{Cite web |url=https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/a-retracted-paper-on-sex-differences-ignites-debate-64873 |title=A Retracted Paper on Sex Differences Ignites Debate |last=Azvolinsky |first=Anna |date=2018-09-27 |website=[[The Scientist (magazine)|The Scientist]] |access-date=2019-02-01}}</ref> It was accepted but not published by ''[[The Mathematical Intelligencer]]''; a later version authored by Hill alone was peer reviewed and accepted by ''[[The New York Journal of Mathematics]]'' and retracted after publication. A revised version, again authored by Hill alone, was subsequently peer reviewed again and published in the ''Journal of Interdisciplinary Mathematics''.
⚫
He spent most of his career as a professor in the School of Mathematics at the [[Georgia Institute of Technology]], with temporary appointments at [[Washington University]], [[Tel Aviv University]], the [[University of Hawaii]], the [[University of Göttingen]] (Fulbright Professor), the [[University of Costa Rica]], the [[Free University of Amsterdam]], the Mexican Centre for Mathematical Research ([[CIMAT]]), and as Gauss Professor in the [[Göttingen Academy of Sciences]]. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at [[Georgia Institute of Technology]] and Research Scholar in Residence at [[California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo]].
<ref name="Sastre">{{cite magazine|work = Le Point|last1=Sastre|first1=Peggy|title=Pourquoi la science n'est pas à l'abri de la censure|date=2018-10-20|url=https://www.lepoint.fr/debats/pourquoi-la-science-n-est-pas-a-l-abri-de-la-censure-20-10-2018-2264440_2.php}}</ref>
<ref name="Neumann">{{cite magazine|work = Neue Zürchner Zeitung|last1=Neumann|first1=Marc|title=Kann Mathematik sexistisch sein? Ein Aufsatz über Intelligenzverteilung unter Männern und Frauen wurde in den USA jedenfalls zensuriert|date=2018-01-30|url=https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/kann-mathematik-sexistisch-sein-ein-aufsatz-ueber-intelligenzverteilung-unter-maennern-und-frauen-wurde-in-den-usa-jedenfalls-zensuriert-ld.1419733}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite web|url=https://retractionwatch.com/2018/09/17/what-really-happened-when-two-mathematicians-tried-to-publish-a-paper-on-gender-differences-the-tale-of-the-emails/|title=What really happened when two mathematicians tried to publish a paper on gender differences? The tale of the emails|work=[[Retraction Watch]]|date=September 17, 2018}}</ref>
⚫
<ref name="Hill2020">{{cite journal|last1=Hill|first1=Theodore P.|title=Modeling the evolution of differences in variability between sexes|url=https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1091&context=rgp_rsr|accessdate=|date=2020-07-13|journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary Mathematics|volume=23|issue=5|pages=1009–1031|doi=10.1080/09720502.2020.1769827|s2cid=221060074}}</ref>


==Education and career==
A paper on the [[variability hypothesis]] by Hill and [[Sergei Tabachnikov]] was accepted but not published by ''[[The Mathematical Intelligencer]]''; a later version authored by Hill alone was peer reviewed and accepted by ''[[The New York Journal of Mathematics]]'' (''NYJM'') and retracted after publication. According to Toby Young writing for [[Standpoint (magazine)|Standpoint]], this was a result of political activists who were threatened by the conclusions of this paper.<ref name="Young 2019">{{cite journal|last1=Young|first1=Toby|title=The Ted who the Left don't want to talk|url=https://standpointmag.co.uk/the-ted-who-the-left-dont-want-to-talk/|accessdate=8 December 2020|date=2019-03-28|journal=Standpoint Magazine}}</ref> Due to these actions, the paper received much wider attention thanks to the [[Streisand effect]].
⚫
Born in [[Flatbush, New York]], he studied at the [[United States Military Academy at West Point]] (Distinguished Graduate of the Class of 1966), and [[Stanford University]] (M.S. in [[Operations Research]]). After graduating from the [[U.S. Army Ranger School]] and serving as an Army Captain in the Combat Engineers of the [[25th Infantry Division (United States)|25th Infantry Division]] in Vietnam, he returned to study mathematics at the [[University of Göttingen]] ([[Fulbright Scholar]]), the [[University of California at Berkeley]] (M.A., Ph.D. under advisor [[Lester Dubins]]), and as NATO/NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at [[Leiden University]].

[[Timothy Gowers]], professor of mathematics at the [[University of Cambridge]], initially said that it was a bad mistake for the article to be published in the first place because of its low mathematical quality <ref>{{Cite web|last=Tim Gowers|first=|date=2018-09-09|title=Has an uncomfortable truth been suppressed?|url=https://gowers.wordpress.com/2018/09/09/has-an-uncomfortable-truth-been-suppressed/|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-12-04|website=Gowers's Weblog|language=en}}</ref>, but after discussions with numerous colleagues who defended the paper, he acknowledged that his own views about the paper had changed, and that the paper's selectivity hypothesis was "actually quite reasonable". <ref>{{Cite web|last=Tim Gowers|first=|date=2018-09-13|title=Addional thoughts on the Ted hill paper|url=https://gowers.wordpress.com/2018/09/13/additional-thoughts-on-the-ted-hill-paper/|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-12-08|website=Gowers's Weblog|language=en}}</ref>

⚫
A revised version was subsequently peer reviewed again and published in the ''Journal of Interdisciplinary Mathematics''.<ref name="Hill2020">{{cite journal|last1=Hill|first1=Theodore P.|title=Modeling the evolution of differences in variability between sexes|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09720502.2020.1769827|accessdate=7 October 2020|date=2020-07-13|journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary Mathematics|volume=23|issue=5|pages=1009–1031|doi=10.1080/09720502.2020.1769827|s2cid=221060074}}</ref>


⚫
He spent most of his career as a professor in the School of Mathematics at the [[Georgia Institute of Technology]], with temporary appointments at [[Washington University in St. Louis]], [[Tel Aviv University]], the [[University of Hawaii]], the [[University of Göttingen]] (Fulbright Professor), the [[University of Costa Rica]], the [[Free University of Amsterdam]], the Mexican Centre for Mathematical Research ([[CIMAT]]), and as Gauss Professor in the [[Göttingen Academy of Sciences]]. Hill has given invited mathematics research lectures in English, German, Spanish and Dutch.


== Selected publications ==
== Selected publications ==
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| author = Theodore P. Hill
| author = Theodore P. Hill
| title = A Statistical Derivation of the Significant-Digit Law
| title = A Statistical Derivation of the Significant-Digit Law
| journal = Statistical Science
| journal = [[Statistical Science]]
| volume = 10
| volume = 10
| issue = 4
| issue = 4
| pages = 354–363
| pages = 354–363
| year = 1995
| year = 1995
| url = https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1042&context=rgp_rsr
| url = http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS/Repository/1.0/Disseminate?handle=euclid.ss/1177009869&view=body&content-type=pdf_1
|format=PDF
|format=PDF
| mr =1421567
| mr =1421567
Line 49: Line 52:
| author = Theodore P. Hill
| author = Theodore P. Hill
| title = The First Digit Phenomenon
| title = The First Digit Phenomenon
| journal = American Scientist
| journal = [[American Scientist]]
|date=July–August 1998
|date=July–August 1998
| volume = 86
| volume = 86
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| url = https://people.math.gatech.edu/~hill/publications/PAPER%20PDFS/TheFirstDigitPhenomenonAmericanScientist1996.pdf
| url = https://people.math.gatech.edu/~hill/publications/PAPER%20PDFS/TheFirstDigitPhenomenonAmericanScientist1996.pdf
| bibcode=1998AmSci..86..358H
| bibcode=1998AmSci..86..358H
| s2cid = 13553246
}}
}}
* {{Cite journal
* {{Cite journal
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| url = https://people.math.gatech.edu/~hill/publications/PAPER%20PDFS/MathematicalDevicesforGettingaFairShare2000.pdf
| url = https://people.math.gatech.edu/~hill/publications/PAPER%20PDFS/MathematicalDevicesforGettingaFairShare2000.pdf
| bibcode = 2000AmSci..88..325H
| bibcode = 2000AmSci..88..325H
| s2cid = 221539202
}}
}}
* {{Cite journal
* {{Cite journal
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| pages = 126+
| pages = 126+
| doi =10.1511/2009.77.126
| doi =10.1511/2009.77.126
| s2cid = 124798270
}}
}}
* {{Cite book
* {{Cite book
|author1=Arno Berger |author2=Theodore P. Hill
|author1=Arno Berger |author2=Theodore P. Hill
|name-list-style=amp | title = An Introduction to Benford's Law
|name-list-style=amp | title = An Introduction to Benford's Law
| publisher = Princeton University Press
| publisher = [[Princeton University Press]]
| year = 2015
| year = 2015
| isbn = 978-0-691-16306-2
| isbn = 978-0-691-16306-2
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| pages = 42–49
| pages = 42–49
| url = https://www.americanscientist.org/article/slicing-sandwiches-states-and-solar-systems| doi = 10.1511/2018.106.1.42
| url = https://www.americanscientist.org/article/slicing-sandwiches-states-and-solar-systems| doi = 10.1511/2018.106.1.42
| url-access = subscription
}}
}}
* {{Cite book
* {{Cite journal
|author=Theodore P. Hill
|author1=Theodore P. Hill |author2=Kent E. Morrison
|name-list-style=amp
| title = Pushing Limits: Memoir of a Maverick from Soldier to Scholar
| title = The Math of Beach Pebble Formation
| publisher = Wise Ink Creative Publishing
| journal = American Scientist
| year = 2020
| isbn = 978-1-63489-351-0
| date = 2023
| volume = 111
| url = https://hill.math.gatech.edu/Memoir2020.php
| issue = 3
| pages = 168-175
| doi = 10.1511/2023.111.3.168
| url = https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-math-of-beach-pebble-formation
| url-access = subscription
}}
}}



==References==
==References==
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==External links==
==External links==
*[https://hill.math.gatech.edu/ Ted Hill's webpage]
*{{cite web|url=https://hill.math.gatech.edu/|title=Ted Hill's webpage}}
*{{MathGenealogy|id=31648|name=Theodore Preston Hill}}
*{{MathGenealogy|id=31648|name=Theodore Preston Hill}}


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[[Category:21st-century American mathematicians]]
[[Category:21st-century American mathematicians]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American army personnel of the Vietnam War]]
[[Category:United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War]]
[[Category:Georgia Tech faculty]]
[[Category:Georgia Tech faculty]]
[[Category:Stanford University alumni]]
[[Category:Stanford University School of Engineering alumni]]
[[Category:United States Military Academy alumni]]
[[Category:United States Military Academy alumni]]
[[Category:Washington University in St. Louis mathematicians]]
[[Category:Washington University in St. Louis mathematicians]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni]]
[[Category:American probability theorists]]
[[Category:Probability theorists]]
[[Category:People from Flatbush, Brooklyn]]
[[Category:People from Flatbush, Brooklyn]]
[[Category:Mathematicians from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Mathematicians from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Fair division researchers]]
[[Category:Washington University in St. Louis faculty]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Tel Aviv University]]
[[Category:University of Hawaiʻi faculty]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Costa Rica]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam]]
[[Category:UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni]]
[[Category:United States Army officers]]

Latest revision as of 08:13, 28 May 2024

Ted Hill
Born
Theodore Preston Hill

(1943-12-28) December 28, 1943 (age 80)
Flatbush, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materB.S., United States Military Academy, 1966

M.S., Stanford University, 1968

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1977
Known forProbability Theory: Benford's Law, Fair division, Optimal Stopping
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsGeorgia Institute of Technology
Doctoral advisorLester Dubins

Theodore Preston Hill (born December 28, 1943), professor emeritus at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is an American mathematician specializing mainly in probability theory. He is an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute (1993), and an Elected Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (1999).

Contributions

[edit]

Hill discovered what many consider to be the definitive proof of Benford's law.[1][2] He is also known for his research in the theories of optimal stopping (including secretary problems and prophet inequality problems) and of fair division, in particular the Hill-Beck land division problem.

Hill has attracted widespread attention for a paper on the variability hypothesis, the theory that men exhibit greater variability than women in genetically controlled traits that he wrote with Sergei Tabachnikov.[3] It was accepted but not published by The Mathematical Intelligencer; a later version authored by Hill alone was peer reviewed and accepted by The New York Journal of Mathematics and retracted after publication. A revised version, again authored by Hill alone, was subsequently peer reviewed again and published in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Mathematics. [4] [5] [6] [7]

Education and career

[edit]

Born in Flatbush, New York, he studied at the United States Military Academy at West Point (Distinguished Graduate of the Class of 1966), and Stanford University (M.S. in Operations Research). After graduating from the U.S. Army Ranger School and serving as an Army Captain in the Combat Engineers of the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam, he returned to study mathematics at the University of Göttingen (Fulbright Scholar), the University of California at Berkeley (M.A., Ph.D. under advisor Lester Dubins), and as NATO/NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at Leiden University.

He spent most of his career as a professor in the School of Mathematics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, with temporary appointments at Washington University in St. Louis, Tel Aviv University, the University of Hawaii, the University of Göttingen (Fulbright Professor), the University of Costa Rica, the Free University of Amsterdam, the Mexican Centre for Mathematical Research (CIMAT), and as Gauss Professor in the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. Hill has given invited mathematics research lectures in English, German, Spanish and Dutch.

Selected publications

[edit]
  • Theodore P. Hill (1995). "A Statistical Derivation of the Significant-Digit Law" (PDF). Statistical Science. 10 (4): 354–363. doi:10.1214/ss/1177009869. MR 1421567.
  • Theodore P. Hill (July–August 1998). "The First Digit Phenomenon" (PDF). American Scientist. 86 (4): 358+. Bibcode:1998AmSci..86..358H. doi:10.1511/1998.4.358. S2CID 13553246.
  • Theodore P. Hill (July–August 2000). "Mathematical Devices for Getting a Fair Share" (PDF). American Scientist. 88 (4): 325+. Bibcode:2000AmSci..88..325H. doi:10.1511/2000.4.325. S2CID 221539202.
  • Theodore P. Hill (March–April 2009). "Knowing When to Stop". American Scientist. 97 (2): 126+. doi:10.1511/2009.77.126. S2CID 124798270.
  • Arno Berger & Theodore P. Hill (2015). An Introduction to Benford's Law. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-16306-2.
  • Theodore P. Hill (2017). Pushing Limits: From West Point to Berkeley and Beyond. American Mathematical Society and Mathematical Association of America. ISBN 978-1-4704-3584-4.
  • Theodore P. Hill (2018). "Slicing Sandwiches, States, and Solar Systems". American Scientist. 106 (1): 42–49. doi:10.1511/2018.106.1.42.
  • Theodore P. Hill & Kent E. Morrison (2023). "The Math of Beach Pebble Formation". American Scientist. 111 (3): 168–175. doi:10.1511/2023.111.3.168.


References

[edit]
  1. ^ Brase, Charles Henry; Brase, Corrinne Pellillo (2014-01-01). Understandable Statistics. Cengage Learning. pp. 436–. ISBN 9781305142909. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  2. ^ Murtagh, Jack (2023-05-08). "What Is Benford's Law? Why This Unexpected Pattern of Numbers Is Everywhere".
  3. ^ Azvolinsky, Anna (2018-09-27). "A Retracted Paper on Sex Differences Ignites Debate". The Scientist. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  4. ^ Sastre, Peggy (2018-10-20). "Pourquoi la science n'est pas à l'abri de la censure". Le Point.
  5. ^ Neumann, Marc (2018-01-30). "Kann Mathematik sexistisch sein? Ein Aufsatz über Intelligenzverteilung unter Männern und Frauen wurde in den USA jedenfalls zensuriert". Neue Zürchner Zeitung.
  6. ^ "What really happened when two mathematicians tried to publish a paper on gender differences? The tale of the emails". Retraction Watch. September 17, 2018.
  7. ^ Hill, Theodore P. (2020-07-13). "Modeling the evolution of differences in variability between sexes". Journal of Interdisciplinary Mathematics. 23 (5): 1009–1031. doi:10.1080/09720502.2020.1769827. S2CID 221060074.
[edit]
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