A brief history of the statistics department of the University of California at Berkeley

Abstract

The early history of our department was dominated by Jerzy Neyman (1894-1981), while the next phase was largely in the hands of Neyman's students, with Erich Lehmann (1917-2009) being a central, long-lived, and much loved member of this group. We are very fortunate in having the biography Neyman-From Life written by Constance Reid (1918-2010), and Erich's Reminiscences of a Statistician: The Company I Kept and other historical material documenting the founding and growth of the department, and the people in it. In what follows we will draw heavily on these sources, describing what seems to us a remarkable success story: one person starting a cell of statistical research and teaching not being hampered by any existing traditions and routines, and seeing that cell grow rapidly into a major force in academic statistics worldwide. That it has remained so since its founding is a testament to the strength of Neyman's model for a department of statistics.