Michael Woodroofe


Michael Barrett Woodroofe is an American probabilist and statistician. He is an emeritus professor of statistics and of mathematics at the University of Michigan, where he was the Leonard J. Savage Professor until his retirement. He is noted for his work in sequential analysis and nonlinear renewal theory, in central limit theory, and in nonparametric inference with shape constraints.

Education and career

Woodroofe received his Bachelor of Science from Stanford University in 1962. He went on to the University of Oregon for his masters and PhD, which he completed in 1965.
After his PhD, he spent a brief stint as an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, before moving to the University of Michigan in 1968. He spent the rest of his career at Michigan, where he was a founding member of the statistic department. In 1994 he was named the Leonard J. Savage Professor, a position which he held until his retirement in 2009.
Woodroofe is particularly noted for his work in sequential analysis and nonlinear renewal theory, in central limit theory, and in nonparametric inference with shape constraints.
Woodroofe advised over 40 graduate students, many of whom have gone on to distinguished careers of their own. He has published over 100 research articles, and 2 books. He served as editor of the Annals of Statistics from 1992 to 1994, and was the last solo editor of the journal.

Awards and honors

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