Reminiscences of a Statistician: The Company I Kept
by
Erich Lehmann
© 2008 Springer Science + Business Media, LLC
"The book is, in part, autobiographical. It also provides biographical vignettes of the people Lehmann has known and associated with since his arrival at Berkeley in 1941. a ] This is the first book that provides insights into the personalities and progress of statistical work of this period a ] . Currently, the book is a very interesting read with much insight. In the longer term, I predict that it will be a valuable source for historians of the future wanting to write about this period." (David Bellhouse, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2008 k)
Prof. Lehmann是Prof. S的导师。两周前，经过Prof. S的办公室，正好他在，一开始只是想打声招呼，结果跟他聊了很久。提到History of Stat, 他说只要我保证好好爱惜，就把这本书借给我看 ^^ 上面有Prof. Lehmann的亲笔签名。
Prof. Lehmann的文笔很幽默。他的那本
Nonparametrics: Statistical Methods Based on Ranks，虽然写于七十年代，虽然我只读了前面几章，写的简洁明了，是本很好的教材。
看到书中提及的众多统计学家，数学家，以及他们的贡献，我为自己的无知感到惭愧。我所学到的统计知识连冰上一角都算不上。端木小猪还有很长的路要走。
题外话：看到一些人说统计特别容易，随随便便就能转来学统计。我既为统计受到关注而开心，又为统计被如此看轻而生气。不过，打个比方，不少人转专业去读CS，并不意味着CS这个专业就很“容易”，或者说，入门容易，但若要深入理解，且得下功夫。统计在某些人眼里不过是平均数和方差，大不了再来个正态分布。You have to learn to appreciate the beauty of statistics.
书中很大篇幅在讲Berkeley Stat Department的历史。Prof. Lehmann 1941年抵达Berkeley，在那之后的六十多年一直住在Berkeley。从Stat Lab到独立的统计系，从Jerzy Neyman到
David Freedman，都是Prof. Lehmann亲历的历史。
摘录一些：[ ] 内为注解
当时的数学系Chairman Professor Griffith C. Evans [Berkeley数学系和统计系所在的那栋楼就是为纪念他而命名为Evans Hall] 很慷慨地录取了Lehmann，认为Lehmann在 Trinity College, Cambridge所受的两年教育相当于美国的学士学位。事后， Prof. Lehmann分析还有别的原因：
“Undoubtedly, at that time [1941] it was not easy to attract good graduate students. Here came this fellow Lehmann with a Swiss high school education and two years of study at Cambridge - I must have looked like a good bet.” (page 10)
“If the person at the board got stuck and no one else could find the next step, he would call on me: 'Erich will know since he is from Vienna,' he would say. I never did, perhaps because I was not from VIenna, as I told him frequently but without success.” (page 23)
许宝騄
数学家。在中国开创了
概率论、数理统计的教学与研究工作。在内曼－皮尔逊理论、参数估计理论、多元分析、极限理论等方面取得卓越成就，是多元统计分析学科的开拓者之一。
在1945年秋，他应邀去美国加州大学伯克利分校和
哥伦比亚大学任访问教授，各讲一个学期，学生中有安德森，莱曼（
Prof. Lehmann）等人。1946年到北卡罗莱纳大学任教。一年后，他决心回国，谢绝了一些大学的聘任，回到北京大学任教授。1948年他当选为中央研究院院士。
