Introduction
Probability and Statistics theme is a component of Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias.
The Theme with contributions from distinguished experts in the field, discusses Probability and Statistics. Probability is a standard mathematical concept to describe stochastic uncertainty. Probability and Statistics can be considered as the two sides of a coin. They consist of methods for modeling uncertainty and measuring real phenomena. Today many important political, health, and economic decisions are based on statistics. This theme is structured in five main topics: Probability and Statistics; Probability Theory; Stochastic Processes and Random Fields; Probabilistic Models and Methods; Foundations of Statistics, which are then expanded into multiple subtopics, each as a chapter.
These three volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.
Editor(s) Biography
Reinhard Viertl was born on March 25 1946, at Hall in Tyrol, Austria. He studied civil engineering and engineering mathematics at the Technische Hochschule Wien and received a Dipl.-Ing. degree in engineering mathematics in 1972. He obtained a Doctor of engineering science degree in 1974. He joined as assistant at the Technische Hochschule Wien and became University Docent in 1979. He was a research fellow and visiting lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1980 to 1981, and visiting Docent at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria in winter 1982. Since 1982, he is a full professor of applied statistics at the Department of Statistics, Vienna University of Technology. He was a visiting professor at the Department of Statistics, University of Innsbruck, Austria from 1991 to 1993, and is invited to be a visiting professor at the University of Calgary in summer 2002. He is a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, London, held the Max Kade fellowship in 1980, and is founder of the Austrian Bayes Society, member of the International Statistical Institute, and president of the Austrian Statistical Society from 1987 to 1995. He was invited to membership in the New York Academy of Sciences. He authored the books Statistical Methods in Accelerated Life Testing (1988), Introduction to Stochastics in German language (1990), Statistical Methods for Non-Precise Data (1996). He edited the books Probability and Bayesian Statistics (1987), Contributions to Environmental Statistics in German language (1992). He is co-editor of a book titled Mathematical and Statistical Methods in Artificial Intelligence (1995), and co-editor of two special volumes of journals. He authored over eighty scientific papers in algebra, probability theory, accelerated life testing, regional statistics, and statistics with non-precise data. He serves on the editorial board of scientific journals, is editor of the publication series of the Vienna University of Technology, and has organized different scientific conferences
