Person: Hsu, Pao-Lu
Pao-Lu Hsu was a Chinese mathematician who worked in probability theory and statistics.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Hsu's school education was in Peking and he did not choose mathematics as a career at this stage but rather it was chemistry which he decided to study at university.
- Hsu passed examinations in 1936 at Peking University and obtained a scholarship to enable him to continue his graduate studies in Britain.
- Certainly University College, London was an excellent place for Hsu to study as his mathematical interests were in probability and statistics.
- Hsu's first two papers were published in the Statistical Research Memoirs which were edited by Jerzy Neyman and Egon Pearson.
- One concerned what is now known as the Behrens-Fisher problem, while the second Hsu examined the problem of optimal estimators of the variance in the Gauss-Markov model.
- In 1938 Hsu, while still undertaking research for his doctorate, too up a position as lecturer in Egon Pearson's Department.
- Hsu chose to leave Britain to return to his homeland of China where he was appointed as Professor at Peking University.
- It was a period of great difficulty and hardship for Hsu.
- It is a great tribute to Hsu's determination to devote himself to statistics that he managed to continue his research during these difficult war years.
- Many of his publications on multivariate analysis from this period show that he had been strongly influenced by R A Fisher while at University College.
- Attempts were made to get Hsu to the United States.
- During the next two years he taught at the University of California, Columbia University, and the University of North Carolina where he was offered an associate professorship.
- After spending 1946-47 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in 1947 Hsu returned to his professorship at Peking University.
- Hsu had poor health from 1950.
- Hsu died in his home on the campus of Peking University in 1970.
Born 1 September 1910, Beijing, China. Died 18 December 1970, Beijing, China.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin China
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
