| Olav Kallenberg | |
| Workplaces: | Uppsala University Auburn University |
| Education: | Royal Institute of Technology Chalmers University of Technology |
| Awards: | Rollo Davidson Prize |
Olav Kallenberg (born September 22, 1939) is a Swedish-American mathematician, working in all areas of probability theory. He is especially known for his work on random measures and probabilistic symmetries, and for his graduate-level textbooks and monographs. Since 2018 he is an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Auburn University, AL.[1] [2]
Kallenberg was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, but grew up in Stockholm, where he attended the KTH (Royal Institute of Technology), division of Technical Physics, graduating with honors as a civil engineer. In 1966 he got a masters degree (then about equivalent to a present Ph.D.) in probability theory (belonging to the division of Mathematical Statistics) under the essential direction of Carl-Gustav Esseen although, for administrative purposes only, he appears to have been under Harald Bergström. After a few years as a full-time university lecturer and industry consultant, he joined the Mathematics Department at Chalmers University of Technology, in Gothenburg, where he got his Ph.D. in 1972 on a thesis on Random Measures[3], inspired by the work of Peter Jagers. An extended version of the thesis was later published by Akademie-Verlag and Academic Press, and appeared in four editions, 1975-86.
After graduation, Kallenberg stayed at Chalmers University on various post-doctoral and lecturer positions, apart from year-long visits to Chapel Hill 1973-74 and Vancouver 1978-79. In 1985 he was appointed as Professor at Uppsala University succeeding Carl-Gustav Esseen, which caused him automatically to lose his position in Gothenburg. However, due to a crisis in the Swedish house market, he couldn't afford his move to Uppsala, which is why he chose instead to move to the United States.[4] In 1986 he was appointed as a tenured Professor of Mathematics at Auburn University. In 2018 he retired as an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, to focus on his research, professional writing, and international travel.
In 1958, Kallenberg was the national winner of a yearly mathematics competition for high-school students.
In 1977 he was the second recipient of the Rollo Davidson Prize[5] from Cambridge University, for his solution of a famous problem in stochastic geometry.
In 1986 he gave a one-hour plenary talk at the 2nd World Congress of Mathematical Statistics and Probability in Tashkent (then belonging to the Soviet Union but now the capital of independent Uzbekistan.)
In 1989 he was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.[6]
In 1993 he was a one-hour plenary speaker at the yearly American Mathematical Society Conference, held in Knoxville, TN.
In 2005 he gave a one-hour plenary talk at the 1st Franco-Nordic Congress of Mathematicians in Reykjavik, Iceland.
In 2006 he was selected as the Distinguished Graduate Faculty Lecturer at Auburn University.[7]
In 2006 and 2018 he gave the opening plenary talks at the international Vilnius and SPA (Stochastic Processes and their Applications) Conferences.
In 2013 he was honored by an international Olav Kallenberg Workshop at the Mittag-Leffler Institute in Djursholm, Sweden, attended by leading probabilists from several different countries.
Editor-in-Chief of the leading Springer journal PTRF (Probability Theory and Related Fields), 1991-94.