Author Description

Thorvald Nicolai Thiele was a brilliant Danish researcher of the 19th Century. He was a professor of Astronomy and founder of Hafnia, the first Danish private insurance company. Thiele worked in astronomy, mathematics, actuarial science and statistics, his most spectacular contributions were in the latter two areas, where his published work was far ahead of his time.Thiele: Pioneer in Statistics also contains three papers, written by A. Hald and S.L. Lauritzen which describes Thiele's statistical work in modern terms and puts them into an historical perspective. The texts are supplemented with introductory material on Thiele's life and other interests, as well as with explanatory comments from the translator in the form of footnotes.