Agnes Berger Explained

Agnes P. Berger (1916-2002) was a Hungarian-American mathematician who served as an associate professor of biostatistics at Columbia University's School of Public Health, as well as a statistical consultant at Mount Sinai. ^[1]

Early years

Her first experiences with mathematics were thanks to the Hungarian publication Kömal (Kozepiskolai Matematikai Lapok), a monthly magazine for high school students that included math problems. ^[2]

During her studies at the University of Budapest, she was a student of the prominent Hungarian mathematician Lipót Fejér, whom she would remember years later for his short, detailed classes and dramatic endings. ^[3] Her parents were friends with the parents of contemporary mathematician Peter Lax.^[4]

She earned her doctorate.^[5]

Career

Berger collaborated with other statisticians such at Jerzy Neyman.^[6] She reviewed work of Joseph L. Fleiss, another statistical mathematician.^[7]

Family life and last years of life

Agnes Berger married Laszlo Berger, with whom she had a son, John Joseph Berger. She died at age 85 at Lenox Hill Hospital on March 27, 2002.

Some publications

• With Abraham Wald, On Distinct Hypotheses. The Annals of Mathematical Statistics (1949), Volume 20, Number 1.
• On Uniformly Consistent Tests. The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, Volume 22 (1951), Number 2.
• Remark on Separable Spaces of Probability Measures. The Annals of Mathematical Statistics (1951), Volume 22, Number 1.
• On orthogonal probability measures. Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society (1953), Volume 4, Number 5.
• On Comparing Intensities of Association between Two Binary Characteristics in Two Different Populations. Journal of the American Statistical Association (1961), Volume 56, Number 296.
• With Ruth Z. Gold, On Comparing Survival Times. Proceedings of the Fourth Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, Volume 4: Contributions to Biology and Problems of Medicine (1961), Number 67.
• On comparing survival probabilities from discrete observations under unequal censoring. Statistics & Probability Letters (1983), Volume 1, Number 5.
• With Ora E. Percus, On sampling by index cases. Statistics & Probability Letters (1985), Volume 3, Number 4.
• With Guadalupe Gómez and Sylvan Wallenstein, A Homogeneity Test for Follow-up Studies. Mathematical Medicine and Biology (1988), Volume 5, Number 2.

Notes and References

1. News: Paid Notice: Deaths BERGER, AGNES P.. 2002-03-29. The New York Times. 2020-04-24. en-US. 0362-4331.
2. Sneha, Narayan (2011). Making it in the mathematical community: the case of women mathematicians in Hungary (Master of Arts). Central European University. p. 34.
3. Hersh, Reuben; John-Steiner, Vera. "A Visit to Hungarian Mathematics" . The Mathematical Intelligencer 15 (2): 13-26. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
4. Book: Hersh, Reuben. Peter Lax, Mathematician. 2014-12-29. American Mathematical Soc.. 978-1-4704-1708-6. en.
5. Mintzis. Matthew J.. Berger. Agnes P.. Greenwald. Edward. Greenwald. Edith. Golomb. Frederick. 1978. Malignant melanoma in spouses. Cancer. en. 42. 2. 804–807. 10.1002/1097-0142(197808)42:2<804::AID-CNCR2820420254>3.0.CO;2-9. 679166. 31381862 . 1097-0142. free.
6. Book: Golbeck, Amanda L.. Equivalence: Elizabeth L. Scott at Berkeley. 2017-04-28. CRC Press. 978-1-351-75191-9. en.
7. Book: Fleiss. Joseph L.. Statistical Methods for Rates and Proportions. Levin. Bruce. Paik. Myunghee Cho. 2013-06-12. John Wiley & Sons. 978-1-118-62561-3. en.