George Dantzig

George Bernard Dantzig (/ˈdæntsɪɡ/;

George Dantzig
November 8, 1914 – May 13, 2005) was an
American mathematical scientist who made
contributions to industrial engineering, operations
research, computer science, economics, and
statistics.

Dantzig is known for his development of the

simplex algorithm,[1] an algorithm for solving
linear programming problems, and for his other
work with linear programming. In statistics,
Dantzig solved two open problems in statistical
theory, which he had mistaken for homework
after arriving late to a lecture by Jerzy Dantzig with President Gerald Ford in 1976
Neyman.[2]
Born George Bernard Dantzig
At his death, Dantzig was the Professor Emeritus November 8, 1914
of Transportation Sciences and Professor of Portland, Oregon, US
Operations Research and of Computer Science at Died May 13, 2005 (aged 90)
Stanford University. Stanford, California, US
Citizenship American
Early life Alma mater University of Maryland (BS)
University of Michigan (MS)
Born in Portland, Oregon, George Bernard
University of California, Berkeley (PhD)
Dantzig was named after George Bernard Shaw,
the Irish writer.[3][4] He was born to Jewish Known for Linear programming
parents; his father, Tobias Dantzig, was a Quadratic programming
mathematician and linguist, and his mother, Anja Stochastic programming
Dantzig (née Ourisson), was a Russian-born Linear complementarity problem
linguist of French-Lithuanian origin. Dantzig's Max-flow min-cut theorem of networks
parents met during their study at the University of Pseudoforest
Paris, where Tobias studied mathematics under Vehicle routing problem
Henri Poincaré, after whom Dantzig's brother
Dantzig's simplex algorithm
was named.[4] The Dantzigs emigrated to the
Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition
United States, where they settled in Portland,
Oregon. Awards John von Neumann Theory Prize (1975)
National Medal of Science (1975)
Early in the 1920s the Dantzig family moved Harvey Prize (1985)
from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. His mother
Harold Pender Award (1995)
became a linguist at the Library of Congress, and
his father became a math tutor at the University Scientific career
of Maryland, College Park. Fields Mathematics
Operations research
Education Industrial engineering
Computer science
Dantzig attended Powell Junior High School and Economics
Central High School. By the time he reached Statistics
high school, he was already fascinated by
Institutions U.S. Air Force Office of Statistical
geometry, and this interest was further nurtured
Control
by his father, challenging him with complicated
problems, particularly in projective RAND Corporation
geometry. [2][4] University of California, Berkeley
Stanford University
George Dantzig received his B.S. from Doctoral Jerzy Neyman
University of Maryland in 1936 in mathematics
advisor
and physics. He earned his master's degree in
mathematics from the University of Michigan in Doctoral
1937. After working as a junior statistician at the students Robert Fourer
Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1937 to 1939,[5] Alfredo Noel Iusem
he enrolled in the doctoral program in Ellis L. Johnson
mathematics at the University of California, Thomas Magnanti
Berkeley, where he studied statistics under Jerzy Roger J-B Wets
Neyman. Yinyu Ye

In 1939, a misunderstanding brought about Influences Wassily Leontief

surprising results. Near the beginning of a class, John von Neumann
Professor Neyman wrote two problems on the Marshal K. Wood
blackboard. Dantzig arrived late and assumed
Influenced Kenneth J. Arrow
that they were a homework assignment.
Martin Beale
According to Dantzig, they "seemed to be a little
Robert Dorfman
harder than usual", but a few days later he
handed in completed solutions for both problems, Leonid Hurwicz
still believing that they were an assignment that Tjalling C. Koopmans
was overdue.[4][6] Six weeks later, an excited Alvin Roth
Neyman eagerly told him that the "homework" Thomas L. Saaty
problems he had solved were two of the most Paul Samuelson
famous unsolved problems in statistics. [2][4] He Harry M. Markowitz
had prepared one of Dantzig's solutions for Philip Wolfe
publication in a mathematical journal.[7] This
story began to spread and was used as a motivational lesson demonstrating the power of positive thinking.
Over time, some facts were altered, but the basic story persisted in the form of an urban legend and as an
introductory scene in the movie Good Will Hunting.[6]

Dantzig recalled in a 1986 interview in the College Mathematics Journal, "A year later, when I began to
worry about a thesis topic, Neyman just shrugged and told me to wrap the two problems in a binder and he
would accept them as my thesis."[8]

Years later, another researcher, Abraham Wald, was preparing to publish a paper where he had arrived at a
conclusion for the second problem when he learned of Dantzig's earlier solution. When Dantzig suggested
publishing jointly, Wald simply added Dantzig's name as co-author.[4][8][9]

Career
With the outbreak of World War II, Dantzig took a leave of absence from the doctoral program at Berkeley
to work as a civilian for the United States Army Air Forces. From 1941 to 1946, he became the head of the
combat analysis branch of the Headquarters Statistical Control for the Army Air Forces.[2] In 1946, he
returned to Berkeley to complete the requirements of his program and received his PhD that year.[3]
Although he had a faculty offer from Berkeley, he returned to the Air Force as mathematical advisor to the
comptroller.[4]

In 1952, Dantzig joined the mathematics division of the RAND Corporation. By 1960, he became a
professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at UC Berkeley, where he founded and directed the
Operations Research Center. In 1966, he joined the Stanford faculty as Professor of Operations Research
and of Computer Science. A year later, the Program in Operations Research became a full-fledged
department. In 1973, he founded the Systems Optimization Laboratory (SOL) there. On a sabbatical leave
that year, he managed the Methodology Group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
(IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. Later, he became the C. A. Criley Professor of Transportation Sciences at
Stanford University.[3]

He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dantzig was the recipient of many honors, including the first
John von Neumann Theory Prize in 1974, the National Medal of Science in 1975,[10] and an honorary
doctorate from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1976. The Mathematical Programming Society
honored Dantzig by creating the George B. Dantzig Prize, bestowed every three years since 1982 on one
or two people who have made a significant impact in the field of mathematical programming. He was
elected to the 2002 class of Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management
Sciences.[11]

Research

Freund wrote further that "through his research in mathematical theory, computation, economic analysis,
and applications to industrial problems, Dantzig contributed more than any other researcher to the
remarkable development of linear programming".[12]

Dantzig's work allows the airline industry, for example, to schedule crews and make fleet assignments.
Based on his work, tools are developed "that shipping companies use to determine how many planes they
need and where their delivery trucks should be deployed. The oil industry long has used linear
programming in refinery planning, as it determines how much of its raw product should become different
grades of gasoline and how much should be used for petroleum-based byproducts. It is used in
manufacturing, revenue management, telecommunications, advertising, architecture, circuit design and
countless other areas".[2]

Linear programming

Linear programming is a mathematical method for determining a way to achieve the best outcome (such as
maximum profit or lowest cost) in a given mathematical model for some list of requirements represented as
linear relationships. Linear programming arose as a mathematical model developed during World War II to
plan expenditures and returns in order to reduce costs to the army and increase losses to the enemy. It was
kept secret until 1947. Postwar, many industries found its use in their daily planning.

The founders of this subject are Leonid Kantorovich, a Russian mathematician who developed linear
programming problems in 1939, Dantzig, who published the simplex method in 1947, and John von
Neumann, who developed the theory of the duality in the same year.

Dantzig was asked to work out a method the Air Force could use to improve their planning process.[13]
This led to his original example of finding the best assignment of 70 people to 70 jobs, showing the
usefulness of linear programming. The computing power required to test all the permutations to select the
best assignment is vast; the number of possible configurations exceeds the number of particles in the
universe. However, it takes only a moment to find the optimum solution by posing the problem as a linear
program and applying the Simplex algorithm. The theory behind linear programming drastically reduces the
number of possible optimal solutions that must be checked.

In 1963, Dantzig's Linear Programming and Extensions was published by Princeton University Press. The
book quickly became a standard text in linear programming.

Personal life
Dantzig married Anne S. Shmuner in 1936.[14][15] He died on May 13, 2005, in his home in Stanford,
California, of complications from diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He was 90 years old.[2]

Presidential award
On October 18, 1976 President Gerald Ford presented Dantzig with the President's National Medal of
Science. The award was given "For inventing linear programming and discovering methods that led to
wide-scale scientific and technical applications to important problems in logistics, scheduling, and network
optimization, and to the use of computers in making efficient use of the mathematical theory."[16]

Publications
Books by George Dantzig:

1953. Notes on linear programming. RAND Corporation.

1956. Linear inequalities and related systems. With others. Edited by H.W. Kuhn and A.W.
Tucker. Princeton University Press.
1963. Linear programming and extensions (https://books.google.com/books?id=2j46uCX5Z
AYC). Princeton University Press and the RAND Corporation. pdf from RAND (https://www.r
and.org/pubs/reports/R366/)
1966. On the continuity of the minimum set of a continuous function. With Jon H. Folkman
and Norman Shapiro.
1968. Mathematics of the decision sciences. With Arthur F. Veinott, Jr. Summer Seminar on
Applied Mathematics 5th : 1967 : Stanford University. American Mathematical Society.
1969. Lectures in differential equations. A. K. Aziz, general editor. Contributors: George B.
Dantzig and others.
1970. Natural gas transmission system optimization. With others.
1973. Compact city; a plan for a liveable urban environment. With Thomas L. Saaty.
1974. Studies in optimization. Edited with B.C. Eaves. Mathematical Association of America.
1985. Mathematical programming : essays in honor of George B. Dantzig. Edited by R.W.
Cottle. Mathematical Programming Society.
1997. Linear programming 1: Introduction. G.B.D. and Mukund N. Thapa. Springer-Verlag.
2003. Linear programming 2: Theory and Extensions. G.B.D. and Mukund N. Thapa.
Springer-Verlag.
2003. The Basic George B. Dantzig. Edited by Richard W. Cottle. Stanford Business Books,
Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.[17]

Book chapters:
 Dantzig, George B. (1960), "General convex objective forms", in Arrow, Kenneth J.; Karlin,
Samuel; Suppes, Patrick (eds.), Mathematical models in the social sciences, 1959:
Proceedings of the first Stanford symposium, Stanford mathematical studies in the social
sciences, IV, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, pp. 151–158,
ISBN 9780804700214.

Articles, a selection:

Dantzig, George B. (June 1940). "On the Non-Existence of Tests of 'Student's' Hypothesis
Having Power Functions Independent of σ" (https://doi.org/10.1214%2Faoms%2F11777319
12). The Annals of Mathematical Statistics. 11 (2): 186–92. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177731912
(https://doi.org/10.1214%2Faoms%2F1177731912). JSTOR 2235875 (https://www.jstor.org/
stable/2235875).
Wood, Marshall K.; Dantzig, George B. (1949). "Programming of Interdependent Activities: I
General Discussion". Econometrica. 17 (3/4): 193–9. doi:10.2307/1905522 (https://doi.org/1
0.2307%2F1905522). JSTOR 1905522 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1905522).
Dantzig, George B. (1949). "Programming of Interdependent Activities: II Mathematical
Model". Econometrica. 17 (3): 200–211. doi:10.2307/1905523 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F1
905523). JSTOR 1905523 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1905523).
Dantzig, George B. (1955). "Optimal Solution of a Dynamic Leontief Model with
Substitution". Econometrica. 23 (3): 295–302. doi:10.2307/1910385 (https://doi.org/10.230
7%2F1910385). JSTOR 1910385 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1910385).

See also
Systems science
portal

Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition
Knapsack problem
Maximum flow problem
Optimization (mathematics)
Travelling salesman problem
Shadow price
List of Jewish American mathematicians

Notes
1. Gass, Saul I. (2011). "George B. Dantzig". Profiles in Operations Research. International
Series in Operations Research & Management Science. Vol. 147. pp. 217–240.
doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-6281-2_13 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-6281-2_13).
ISBN 978-1-4419-6280-5.
2. Joe Holley (2005). "Obituaries of George Dantzig" (https://supernet.isenberg.umass.edu/pho
tos/gdobit.html). In: Washington Post, May 19, 2005; B06
3. Richard W. Cottle, B. Curtis Eaves and Michael A. Saunders (2006). "Memorial Resolution:
George Bernard Dantzig" (http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2006/june7/memldant-060
706.html). Stanford Report, June 7, 2006.
4. Albers, Donald J.; Alexanderson, Gerald L.; Reid, Constance, eds. (1990). "George B.
Dantzig" (https://archive.org/details/moremathematical0000unse/page/60). More
Mathematical People. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. pp. 60–79 (https://archive.org/details/mor
emathematical0000unse/page/60). ISBN 978-0-15-158175-7.
 5. Dawn Levy (May 25, 2005). "George B. Dantzig, operations research giant, dies at 90" (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20210226053552/https://news.stanford.edu/pr/2005/pr-dantzigobit-0
52505.html). Stanford University News Service. Archived from the original (https://news.stanf
ord.edu/pr/2005/pr-dantzigobit-052505.html) on February 26, 2021. Retrieved February 22,
2021.
6. "The Unsolvable Math Problem" (http://www.snopes.com/college/homework/unsolvable.as
p). Snopes. June 28, 2011.
7. Dantzig, George (1940). "On the non-existence of tests of "Student's" hypothesis having
power functions independent of σ" (https://doi.org/10.1214%2Faoms%2F1177731912). The
Annals of Mathematical Statistics. 11 (2): 186–192. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177731912 (https://d
oi.org/10.1214%2Faoms%2F1177731912).
8. Allende, Sira M.; Bouza, Carlos N. (2005). "Professor George Bernard Dantzig, Life &
Legend" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180421052355/http://rev-inv-ope.univ-paris1.fr/filea
dmin/rev-inv-ope/files/26305//IO-26305-1.pdf) (PDF). Revista Investigación Operacional. 26
(3): 205–11. Archived from the original (http://rev-inv-ope.univ-paris1.fr/fileadmin/rev-inv-ope/
files/26305/IO-26305-1.pdf) (PDF) on 2018-04-21. Retrieved 2019-03-24.
9. Dantzig, George; Wald, Abraham (1951). "On the Fundamental Lemma of Neyman and
Pearson" (http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aoms/1177729695). The Annals of Mathematical
Statistics. 22: 87–93. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177729695 (https://doi.org/10.1214%2Faoms%2F
1177729695). Retrieved 14 October 2014.
10. National Science Foundation – The President's National Medal of Science (https://www.nsf.
gov/od/nms/recip_details.cfm?recip_id=95)
11. Fellows: Alphabetical List (https://web.archive.org/web/20190510220119/https://www.inform
s.org/Recognizing-Excellence/Fellows/Fellows-Alphabetical-List), Institute for Operations
Research and the Management Sciences, archived from the original (https://www.informs.or
g/Recognizing-Excellence/Fellows/Fellows-Alphabetical-List) on 2019-05-10, retrieved
2019-10-09
12. Robert Freund (1994). "Professor George Dantzig: Linear Programming Founder Turns 80"
(http://www.stanford.edu/group/SOL/dantzig.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/200
90416184457/http://www.stanford.edu/group/SOL/dantzig.html) 2009-04-16 at the Wayback
Machine. In: SIAM News, November 1994.
13. "Biographical Profiles: Dantzig, George B." (https://www.informs.org/Explore/History-of-O.R.-
Excellence/Biographical-Profiles/Dantzig-George-B) INFORMS. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
14. "George B. Dantzig, operations research professor, dies at 90" (https://news.stanford.edu/ne
ws/2005/may25/dantzigobit-052505.html). 25 May 2005.
15. "George Dantzig" (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1490820/George-Dantzig.ht
ml). Archived (https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/o
bituaries/1490820/George-Dantzig.html) from the original on 2022-01-12.
16. "The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details" (https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/
recip_details.jsp?recip_id=95).
17. Todd, Michael J. (2011). "Review: The Basic George B. Dantzig, by Richard W. Cottle" (http
s://www.ams.org/journals/bull/2011-48-01/S0273-0979-2010-01303-3/). Bull. Amer. Math.
Soc. (N.S.). 48 (1): 123–129. doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-2010-01303-3 (https://doi.org/10.109
0%2FS0273-0979-2010-01303-3).

Further reading
Cottle, Richard; Johnson, Ellis; Wets, Roger (March 2007). "George B. Dantzig (1914–
2005)" (https://www.ams.org/notices/200703/fea-cottle.pdf) (PDF). Notices of the American
Mathematical Society. 54 (3): 344–62.
 "Professor George Dantzig: Linear Programming Founder Turns 80" (http://www.stanford.ed
u/group/SOL/dantzig.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20090416184457/http://ww
w.stanford.edu/group/SOL/dantzig.html) 2009-04-16 at the Wayback Machine, SIAM News,
November 1994
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "George Dantzig" (https://mathshistory.st-andrew
s.ac.uk/Biographies/Dantzig_George.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive,
University of St Andrews
Dantzig, George B. (1990). "The Diet Problem". Interfaces. 20 (4): 43–7.
doi:10.1287/inte.20.4.43 (https://doi.org/10.1287%2Finte.20.4.43). JSTOR 25061369 (https://
www.jstor.org/stable/25061369).
Cottle, Richard W. (2005). "George B. Dantzig: a legendary life in mathematical
programming". Mathematical Programming. 105 (1): 1–8. doi:10.1007/s10107-005-0674-4 (h
ttps://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10107-005-0674-4). ISSN 0025-5610 (https://www.worldcat.org/is
sn/0025-5610). S2CID 207054446 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:207054446).

External links
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "George Dantzig" (https://mathshistory.st-andrew
s.ac.uk/Biographies/Dantzig_George.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive,
University of St Andrews
Tributes to George Dantzig and Leonid Khachiyan (https://web.stanford.edu/group/SOL/GB
D/Dantzig-Khachiyan.pdf)
Obituaries of George Dantzig (https://web.archive.org/web/20060113014322/http://supernet.
som.umass.edu/photos/gdobit.html)
Interview with George B. Dantzig: The Father of Linear Programming – The College
Mathematical Journal, 1986 (http://www.personal.psu.edu/ecb5/Courses/M475W/WeeklyRe
adings/Week%2015/An_Interview_with_George_Dantzig.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.
org/web/20211115103142/http://www.personal.psu.edu/ecb5/Courses/M475W/WeeklyRead
ings/Week%2015/An_Interview_with_George_Dantzig.pdf) 2021-11-15 at the Wayback
Machine JSTOR 2686279 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2686279)
INFORMS George Dantzig Memorial Website (https://web.archive.org/web/2007100916164
0/http://www2.informs.org/History/dantzig/)
George Dantzig (https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=32292) at the Mathematics Genealogy
Project
Biography of George Dantzig (https://www.informs.org/content/view/full/262887) from the
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
An Interview with Nobel Laureate Harry M. Markowitz [1] (https://www.cfapubs.org/doi/full/10.
2469/faj.v73.n4.3)

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