Ester Samuel-Cahn

Ester Samuel-Cahn
Born
Ester Samuel

(1933-05-16)May 16, 1933
Oslo, Norway
DiedNovember 20, 2015(2015-11-20) (aged 82)
NationalityIsraeli
Alma materColumbia University
Scientific career
FieldsStatistics
InstitutionsHebrew University of Jerusalem

Ester Samuel-Cahn (May 16, 1933 – November 20, 2015) was an Israeli statistician and educator. She was a professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[1]

Biography

Samuel-Cahn was born in Oslo, Norway. During the Nazi occupation of Norway, in 1942, her father, a rabbi, was warned that he would be arrested by the Germans.[2] He refused to leave in order to try to support his community.[3] In September, her father was ordered to report to the Gestapo office, where he was questioned and later sent to Auschwitz.[3] Later that year, the Nazis were going to arrest the other Jews in Oslo, however, Samuel-Cahn's family were moved by members of the underground, Ingebjørg Sletten-Fosstvedt and Sigrid Helliesen Lund, to safety and later to a refugee camp in neutral Sweden.[2] In order to cross the border, Samuel-Cahn and the rest of her family had to hide in trucks used to transport potatoes.[4] In Stockholm, Samuel-Cahn's family found out that her father had been killed in Auschwitz.[2] In 1946, Samuel-Cahn, her mother, and brothers moved to Mandatory Palestine (part of which later became Israel).[5]

Samuel-Cahn received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1961.[1] From 1993 to 1995, she was the president of the Israel Statistical Association.[6] In 1989, she was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.[7] She was also a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1989,[8] and of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.[9]

In 2004, Samuel-Cahn won the Israel Prize for her work in statistics.[10] In 2012, she spoke at a memorial ceremony in the Martyrs' Forest in Jerusalem Hills, commemorating Norwegian Jews murdered in the Holocaust and remembering those who helped hide and protect Jews in Norway.[11]

She died in November 2015.[12]

Selected publications

  • Krieger, Abba M.; Pollak, Moshe; Samuel-Cahn, Ester (2010). "Extreme(ly) mean(ingful): Sequential formation of a quality group". The Annals of Applied Probability. 20 (6): 2261–2294. arXiv:1011.3320. Bibcode:2010arXiv1011.3320K. doi:10.1214/10-AAP684. S2CID 119318513.
  • Krieger, Abba M.; Pollak, Moshe; Samuel-Cahn, Ester (2007). "Select Sets: Rank and File". The Annals of Applied Probability. 17 (1): 360. arXiv:math/0703032. Bibcode:2007math......3032K. doi:10.1214/105051606000000691. S2CID 14486113.
  • Assaf, David; Goldstein, Larry; Samuel-Cahn, Ester (2002). "Ratio Prophet Inequalities When the Mortal Has Several Choices". Annals of Applied Probability. 12 (3): 972–984. doi:10.1214/aoap/1031863177.
  • Assaf, David; Samuel-Cahn, Ester (1998). "Optimal Multivariate Stopping Rules" (PDF). Journal of Applied Probability. 35 (3): 693–706. doi:10.1239/jap/1032265217. S2CID 121695795. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  • Rinott, Yosef; Samuel-Cahn, Ester (1992-01-01). Stochastic inequalities. Institute of Mathematical Statistics Lecture Notes - Monograph Series. Hayward, California: Institute of Mathematical Statistics. pp. 343–358. doi:10.1214/lnms/1215461961. ISBN 978-0-940600-29-4. S2CID 117812808.
  • Samuel-Cahn, Ester (1984). "Comparison of Threshold Stop Rules and Maximum for Independent Nonnegative Random Variables". The Annals of Probability. 12 (4): 1213–1216. doi:10.1214/aop/1176993150.
  • Mertens, Jean-Francois; Samuel-Cahn, Ester; Zamir, Shmuel (1978). "Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Recurrence and Transience of Markov Chains, in Terms of Inequalities". Journal of Applied Probability. 15 (4): 848–851. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.142.3519. doi:10.2307/3213440. JSTOR 3213440. S2CID 11893669.

References

  1. ^ a b "Ester Samuel-Cahn". The Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Faculty Research Interests. Retrieved 2015-08-02.
  2. ^ a b c "Torchlighters 2008" (PDF). Yad Vashem Magazine. Vol. 49. Jerusalem. April 2008. p. 12. ISSN 0793-7199. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  3. ^ a b Green, David B. (16 December 2014). "This Day in Jewish History / Norway chief rabbi who stayed with his flock dies in Auschwitz". Haaretz. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  4. ^ Samuel-Cahn, Ester; Samuel, Amos (2006). "Rabbi Isaak Samuel, הי"ד Rabbi of Norwegian Jewry" (PDF). Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  5. ^ Fendel, Hillel (30 April 2008). "Holocaust/Heroism Day Begins Tonight". Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
  6. ^ Weissman, Ishay. "History of the ISA". Israel Statistical Association. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  7. ^ View/Search Fellows of the ASA Archived 2016-06-16 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 2016-11-19.
  8. ^ "Utenlandske medlemmer" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Archived from the original on 15 July 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  9. ^ Honored Fellows, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, archived from the original on 2014-03-02, retrieved 2017-11-24
  10. ^ "Center members have been awarded distinguished prizes". The Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Center for the Study of Rationality. Retrieved 2015-08-02.
  11. ^ "Martyrs' Forest Memorial Ceremony for Norwegian Jews Who Perished in the Holocaust". Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael Jewish National Fund. November 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  12. ^ Aderet, Ofer (2015-11-26). "הפרופסורית שפתרה את "בעיית המזכירה"". Haaretz. Retrieved 2016-01-24.