Profiles in Research

Abstract

Ingram Olkin was born on July 23, 1924 in Waterbury, Connecticut, the only child of Julius and Karola (Bander) Olkin. At the age of 10, he and his family moved to New York City where Ingram attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. He graduated in 1941 and enrolled at the College of the City of New York (CCNY). In 1943, his studies were interrupted by World War II. He volunteered and served in the U.S. Army Air Force as a meteorologist until 1946, at which point he returned to CCNY to finish his degree. After obtaining a Master's degree in mathematical statistics from Columbia University, he headed to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he obtained his PhD in theoretical statistics. He left Chapel Hill to join the faculty of Michigan State University as an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics. During his 9 years at Michigan State, he spent year-long leaves at the University of Chicago in 1955 and Stanford in 1958. In 1960, he joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota, and a year