Remembering Seymour Geisser

This is the text, minus the nice formatting, of an email from Dennis Cook (my thesis advisor and current director of the U of MN School of Statistics) and Wes Johnson (a U of MN alum, a good friend, a great colleague and a student of Seymour Geisser's) about the University of Minnesota School of Statistics (my alma mater) activities in honoring Seymour Geisser. And there is a request for donations at the end, I hope you don't mind. I'll post something about Seymour's influence on my research in another post. 

Dear Colleagues,

This year marks the tenth anniversary of Seymour Geisser's death. Starting in the early 1970's, Seymour guided the then-nascent School of Statistics to one of the top statistics departments in the world, maintaining that standing throughout his tenure as director. He was a scholar in the best traditions of our discipline, a mentor to many of us, and our leader. We can still see Seymour jousting with seminar speakers to convince them that prediction should be the ultimate goal of their work. We will be taking steps over the next year to honor Seymour and his legacy.

The School's website will have a special page devoted to Seymour. We encourage you to visit that webpage and recall Seymour's impact on your professional life.

Several people have furnished accounts of Seymour's influence, which we have included on his webpage. Here are a few excerpts from those accounts:

As my thesis advisor, Seymour saw that I would make good progress without active supervision and that I was cantankerous enough to resist it, so he mostly left me alone and let his lessons seep in rather than try to pound them in. Only much later did I appreciate how much restraint and wisdom -- as well as shrewdness -- his advising style required. 
--James Hodges (PhD 1985)

Simply put, Seymour Geisser was a great scholar, educator, and human being. He was a very caring individual who made a deep impact on my personal life and my career in so many ways.
--Joseph Ibrahim (PhD 1988)

As department leader and in his classes, Prof. Geisser set an environment where we would be challenged to think broadly. Vigorous debate, being challenged to create and defend, and his care for all to grow and learn are his legacy that benefited me and so many others. 
--Dennis Jennings (PhD 1982)

Seymour combined a deep understanding of the foundations of statistics with a keen (perhaps ruthless) eye for what has meaning in practice.
--Robert McCulloch (PhD 1985)

If you have a special memory or tale of Seymour that you are willing to share, we would love to hear from you and to include it on his webpage. Please forward it to Doug Hawkins.

The Geisser lecturer for this year will be Joe Ibrahim, currently scheduled for October 30, 2014. Please stop by if you are in the neighborhood at that time.

We are making a special effort to bring the Seymour Geisser Fellowship to a sustaining level. The fellowship will be used to support a PhD student whose work best reflects Seymour's scholarship and heritage. We encourage you to consider honoring Seymour's memory by contributing to his fellowship. Contributions can be made online.

Wishing you all the best over the coming year,

Dennis
R. Dennis Cook
Director, School of Statistics
University of Minnesota


Wesley O. Johnson
Professor, Department of Statistics
University of California, Irvine
 
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