Skip to content
Statistics logo
  • Courses
    • See All Courses
    • Calendar
    • Intro stats for college credit
    • Faculty
    • Group training
    • Credit & Credentialing
    • Teach With Us
  • Programs/Degrees
    • Certificates
      • Analytics for Data Science
      • Biostatistics
      • Programming For Data Science – Python (Experienced)
      • Programming For Data Science – Python (Novice)
      • Programming For Data Science – R (Experienced)
      • Programming For Data Science – R (Novice)
      • Social Science
    • Skillsets
      • Bayesian Statistics
      • Business Analytics
      • Healthcare Analytics
      • Marketing Analytics
      • Operations Research
      • Predictive Analytics
      • Python Analytics
      • R Programming Analytics
      • Rasch & IRT
      • Spatial Statistics
      • Survey Analysis
      • Text Mining Analytics
    • Undergraduate Degree Programs
    • Graduate Degree Programs
  • Partnerships
    • Higher Education
    • Enterprise
  • Resources
    • About Us
    • Blog
    • Word Of The Week
    • Newsletter signup
    • Glossary
    • Statistical Symbols
    • FAQs & Knowledge Base
    • Testimonials
    • Test Yourself
Menu
  • Courses
    • See All Courses
    • Calendar
    • Intro stats for college credit
    • Faculty
    • Group training
    • Credit & Credentialing
    • Teach With Us
  • Programs/Degrees
    • Certificates
      • Analytics for Data Science
      • Biostatistics
      • Programming For Data Science – Python (Experienced)
      • Programming For Data Science – Python (Novice)
      • Programming For Data Science – R (Experienced)
      • Programming For Data Science – R (Novice)
      • Social Science
    • Skillsets
      • Bayesian Statistics
      • Business Analytics
      • Healthcare Analytics
      • Marketing Analytics
      • Operations Research
      • Predictive Analytics
      • Python Analytics
      • R Programming Analytics
      • Rasch & IRT
      • Spatial Statistics
      • Survey Analysis
      • Text Mining Analytics
    • Undergraduate Degree Programs
    • Graduate Degree Programs
  • Partnerships
    • Higher Education
    • Enterprise
  • Resources
    • About Us
    • Blog
    • Word Of The Week
    • Newsletter signup
    • Glossary
    • Statistical Symbols
    • FAQs & Knowledge Base
    • Testimonials
    • Test Yourself
Student Login

Home Blog Historical Spotlight: Jacob Wolfowitz

Historical Spotlight: Jacob Wolfowitz

World War II was a crucible of technological innovation, including advances in statistics. Jacob Wolfowitz, born a century ago (1920), looked at the problem of noisy radio transmissions. Coded radio transmissions were critical elements of military command and control, and they were plagued by the problem of atmospheric or other interference – “noise”. The weaker the transmission and the longer the distance, the more likely it is that the signal will be lost in the noise. When the human ear and brain hears and interprets a noisy transmission, it has the ability to mitigate some of the signal loss by filling in information, using nearby context as a crutch. When the transmission is a letter-by-letter code, however, context is unhelpful until it is decoded. Therefore, a critical parameter is the rate of loss of individual letters, and minimizing that loss. Wolfowitz helped elaborate a statistical technique to be applied to the coding algorithm with this in mind. His theoretical description envisioned representing each word in what today’s text miners would call a dictionary (e.g., the vocabulary used in military operations) by a numerical sequence. If each numerical sequence is sufficiently distant from all other such sequences, then the potential for guessing an incomplete word is maximized by reducing the potential for confusing the sequence with a similar sequence. For more, read his monograph Coding Theorems of Information Theory.

Wolfowitz worked closely with Abraham Wald during the war years, and the two were responsible for a number of theoretical contributions to probability and statistics, especially in the area of nonparametric statistics.

Jacob Wolfowitz’s son, Paul, carried on the martial tradition in a new way; he was one of the key architects of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Subscribe to blog

By submitting your information, you agree to receive email communications from statistics.com. All information submitted is subject to our privacy policy. You may opt out of receiving communications at any time.

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Oct 19: Data Literacy – The Chainsaw Case
    /
    0 Comments
  • Data Literacy – The Chainsaw Case
    /
    0 Comments
  • Word of the Week – Drift
    /
    0 Comments

About Statistics.com

Statistics.com offers academic and professional education in statistics, analytics, and data science at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels of instruction. Statistics.com is a part of Elder Research, a data science consultancy with 25 years of experience in data analytics.

Our Links

  • Contact Us
  • Site Map
  • Explore Courses
  • About Us
  • Management Team
Menu
  • Contact Us
  • Site Map
  • Explore Courses
  • About Us
  • Management Team

Social Networks

Contact

The Institute for Statistics Education
2107 Wilson Blvd
Suite 850 
Arlington, VA 22201
(571) 281-8817

ourcourses@statistics.com

  • Contact Us
  • Site Map
  • Explore Courses
  • About Us
  • Management Team

© Copyright 2022 - Statistics.com, LLC | All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

By continuing to use this website, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.

Accept