Biography:Donald Bentley
Donald Lyon Bentley is an American statistician and mathematician.[1] A doctoral student of biostatistician Rupert Griel Miller at the Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences,[2][3] Bentley graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Mathematics and Statistics in 1962.[3][4] He then taught at the Mathematics and Statistics Department of Pomona College in Claremont, California from 1964 to 2001,[5] becoming Lingurn H. Burkhead Professor of Mathematics,[6] an endowed chair, before retiring to become a professor emeritus.[1] He was also president of the Southern California Chapter of the American Statistical Association from 1987 to 1988,[7] and was named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1990.[8]
Bentley is known locally for his role in creating Pomona College's tradition of revering the number 47.[6][5] It began in the summer of 1964,[9] when two students, Laurie Mets and Bruce Elgin, conducted a research project seeking to find out whether the number occurs more often in nature than would be expected by chance. They documented various 47 sightings, and Bentley produced a false mathematical proof that 47 was equal to all other integers. The number became a meme among the class, which spread once the academic year began and snowballed over time.[10] Many Pomona alumni have since deliberately inserted 47 references into their work.[11] In the early 2010s, the college's clock tower would chime on the 47th minute of the hour.[12]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Donald Bentley" (in en). Pomona College. July 7, 2021. https://www.pomona.edu/directory/people/donald-bentley.
- ↑ Donald Bentley at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Donald Lyon Bentley". statistics.stanford.edu. https://statistics.stanford.edu/people/donald-lyon-bentley.
- ↑ "Contributions to counter theory with applications to rod vision". searchworks.stanford.edu. https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/9762529.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Kendall, Mark (November 14, 2012). "D.B. and That Number". Pomona College Magazine 49 (1). https://magazine.pomona.edu/2012/fall/d-b-and-that-number/. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Dolinar, Sarah (Fall 2000). "The Mystery of 47". Pomona College Magazine 37 (1). http://www.pomona.edu/Magazine/PCMfl00/1.shtml.
- ↑ "List of Presidents of the Southern California Chapter of the American Statistical Association". American Statistical Association. https://community.amstat.org/scasa/about-us/new-item.
- ↑ "ASA Fellows". American Statistical Association. https://ww2.amstat.org/fellows/.
- ↑ "1964" (in en). Pomona College. https://www.pomona.edu/timeline/1960s/1964.
- ↑ "The Mystery of 47" (in en). Pomona College Magazine. Spring 2015. https://magazine.pomona.edu/2015/spring/the-mystery-of-47/#:~:text=At%20the%20time%20of%20Pomona%E2%80%99s%20first. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- ↑ Lipka, Sara (11 February 2005). "Pomona's Prime Number" (in en). The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/pomonas-prime-number/.
- ↑ Rowan, Brendan (November 5, 2010). "Clock Tower Bell Set to Chime On the 47th Minute" (in en). The Student Life. https://tsl.news/news1684/.
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