Mathematician:Persi Warren Diaconis

Mathematician

American mathematician and former professional magician of Greek descent, best known for tackling mathematical problems involving randomness and randomization, such as coin flipping and shuffling playing cards.

Nationality

American

History

• Born: January 31, 1945 in New York City, New York

Theorems and Definitions

• Freedman-Diaconis Rule (with David Amiel Freedman)

Publications

• 1991: Closed Form Summation for Classical Distributions: Variations on a Theme of De Moivre (Stat. Sci. Vol. 6: pp. 284 – 302) (with Sandy Zabell)  www.jstor.org/stable/2245429
• 1992: Trailing the Dovetail Shuffle to its Lair (Ann. Appl. Probab. Vol. 2: pp. 294 – 313) (with Dave Bayer)  www.jstor.org/stable/2959752