George Dantzig | |
|---|---|
 Dantzig with PresidentGerald Ford in 1976 | |
| Born | George Bernard Dantzig (1914-11-08)November 8, 1914 Portland, Oregon, US |
| Died | May 13, 2005(2005-05-13) (aged 90) |
| Alma mater | University of Maryland (BS) University of Michigan (MS) University of California, Berkeley (PhD) |
| Known for | Linear programming Quadratic programming Stochastic programming Linear complementarity problem Max-flow min-cut theorem of networks Pseudoforest Vehicle routing problem Dantzig's simplex algorithm Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition |
| Awards | John von Neumann Theory Prize(1975)National Medal of Science(1975) Harvey Prize(1985) Harold Pender Award(1995) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics Operations research Industrial engineering Computer science Economics Statistics |
| Institutions | U.S. Air Force Office of Statistical Control RAND Corporation University of California, Berkeley Stanford University |
| Doctoral advisor | Jerzy Spława-Neyman |
| Doctoral students | Ilan Adler Robert Fourer Alfredo Noel Iusem Ellis L. Johnson Thomas Magnanti Roger J-B Wets Yinyu Ye |
George Bernard Dantzig (/ˈdæntsɪɡ/; November 8, 1914–May 13, 2005) was an Americanmathematical scientist who made contributions toindustrial engineering,operations research,computer science,economics andstatistics.
Dantzig is known for his development of thesimplex algorithm,[1] an algorithm for solvinglinear programming problems, and for his other work with linear programming. Instatistics, Dantzig solved twoopen problems instatistical theory, which he had mistaken for homework after arriving late to a lecture by Polish mathematician-statisticianJerzy Spława-Neyman.[2]
At his death, Dantzig was professor emeritus of Transportation Sciences and Professor of Operations Research and of Computer Science atStanford University.
Born toJewish parents inPortland, Oregon, George Bernard Dantzig was named afterGeorge Bernard Shaw, the Irish writer.[3][4] His father,Tobias Dantzig, was a mathematician and linguist, and his mother, Anja Dantzig (née Ourisson), was a Russian-born linguist ofFrench-Lithuanian origin. Dantzig's parents met during their study at theUniversity of Paris, where Tobias studied mathematics underHenri Poincaré, after whom Dantzig's brother was named.[4] The Dantzigs emigrated to the United States, where they settled in Portland, Oregon.
Early in the 1920s the Dantzig family moved fromBaltimore toWashington, D.C. His mother became a linguist at theLibrary of Congress, and his father became a math tutor at theUniversity of Maryland, College Park.
Dantzig attended Powell Junior High School andCentral 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 inprojective geometry.[2][4]
George Dantzig received his B.S. fromUniversity of Maryland in 1936 in mathematics and physics. He earned his master's degree in mathematics from theUniversity 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 theUniversity of California, Berkeley, where he studied statistics underJerzy Spława-Neyman.
During his study in 1939, Dantzig solved two unproven statistical theorems due to a misunderstanding. Near the beginning of a class, Professor Spława-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 Spława-Neyman eagerly told him that the "homework" problems he had solved were two of the most famous unsolved problems instatistics.[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 anurban legend and as an introductory scene in the movieGood Will Hunting.[6]
Dantzig recalled in a 1986 interview in theCollege Mathematics Journal, "A year later, when I began to worry about a thesis topic, Spława-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]
With the outbreak ofWorld War II, Dantzig took a leave of absence from the doctoral program at Berkeley to work as a civilian for theUnited States Army Air Forces. From 1941 to 1946, he became the head of the combat analysis branch of the Headquarters Statistical Control for the Army Air Forces.[2] In 1946, he returned to Berkeley to complete the requirements of his program and received hisPhD that year.[3] Although he had a faculty offer from Berkeley, he returned to the Air Force as mathematical advisor to thecomptroller.[4]
In 1952, Dantzig joined the mathematics division of theRAND Corporation. By 1960, he became a professor in theDepartment of Industrial Engineering at UC Berkeley, where he founded and directed the Operations Research Center. In 1966, he joined the Stanford faculty as Professor of Operations Research and of Computer Science. A year later, the Program in Operations Research became a full-fledged department. In 1973, he founded the Systems Optimization Laboratory (SOL) there. On a sabbatical leave that year, he managed the Methodology Group at theInternational Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. Later, he became the C. A. Criley Professor of Transportation Sciences atStanford University.[3]
He was a member of theNational Academy of Sciences, theNational Academy of Engineering, and theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dantzig was the recipient of many honors, including the firstJohn von Neumann Theory Prize in 1974, theNational Medal of Science in 1975,[10] and anhonorary doctorate from theUniversity of Maryland, College Park in 1976. TheMathematical Programming Society honored Dantzig by creating theGeorge B. Dantzig Prize, bestowed every three years since 1982 on one or two people who have made a significant impact in the field of mathematical programming. He was elected to the 2002 class ofFellows of theInstitute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.[11]
Freund wrote further that "through his research in mathematical theory, computation, economic analysis, and applications to industrial problems, Dantzig contributed more than any other researcher to the remarkable development of linear programming".[12]
Dantzig's work allows the airline industry, for example, to schedule crews and make fleet assignments. Based on his work, tools are developed "that shipping companies use to determine how many planes they need and where their delivery trucks should be deployed. The oil industry long has used linear programming in refinery planning, as it determines how much of its raw product should become different grades of gasoline and how much should be used for petroleum-based byproducts. It is used in manufacturing, revenue management, telecommunications, advertising, architecture, circuit design and countless other areas".[2]
Linear programming is a mathematical method for determining a way to achieve the best outcome (such as maximum profit or lowest cost) in a givenmathematical model for some list of requirements represented as linear relationships. Linear programming arose as a mathematical model developed duringWorld War II to plan expenditures and returns in order to reduce costs to the army and increase losses to the enemy. It was kept secret until 1947. Postwar, many industries found its use in their daily planning.
The founders of this subject areLeonid Kantorovich, a Russian mathematician who developed linear programming problems in 1939, Dantzig, who published thesimplex method in 1947, andJohn von Neumann, who developed the theory of theduality in the same year.
Dantzig was asked to work out a method the Air Force could use to improve their planning process.[13] This led to his original example of finding the best assignment of 70 people to 70 jobs, showing the usefulness oflinear programming. The computing power required to test all the permutations to select the best assignment is vast; the number of possible configurations exceeds the number of particles in the universe. However, it takes only a moment to find the optimum solution by posing the problem as a linear program and applying the Simplex algorithm. The theory behind linear programming drastically reduces the number of possible optimal solutions that must be checked.
In 1963, Dantzig'sLinear Programming and Extensions was published byPrinceton University Press. The book quickly became a standard text in linear programming.
Dantzig married Anne S. Shmuner in 1936.[14][15] He died on May 13, 2005, in his home inStanford, California, of complications fromdiabetes andcardiovascular disease. He was 90 years old.[2] His children were named David, Paul, and Jessica.
On October 18, 1976, PresidentGerald Ford presented Dantzig with theNational Medal of Science. The award was given "For inventing linear programming and discovering methods that led to wide-scale scientific and technical applications to important problems in logistics, scheduling, and network optimization, and to the use of computers in making efficient use of the mathematical theory."[16]
Books by George Dantzig:
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