Professor RNDr. Andrej Pázman, DrSc.

Professor Andrej Pázman was born on December 6, 1938 in Prague. He got his masters degree in physics at the Faculty of Sciences of Comenius University Bratislava in 1961 and three years later, in 1964, he earned his Ph.D. from the Institute of Measurement Theory of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) in Bratislava and partly from the Institute of Information Theory and Automation in Prague, under a supervision of J. Bolf and J. Nedoma. During his Ph.D. studies he became interested in statistics and eventually he changed his research orientation entirely from physics to statistics. From 1964 to 1981 Andrej was employed at the Institute of Measurement Science of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, where he pursued research in statistics. Here, jointly with L. Kubáček, he published his first book (in Slovak) “Statistical Methods in Measurement”. During the years 1966-69, he worked as a researcher at the International Joint Institutes of Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia. He has not abandoned physics entirely - while focusing on statistical problems of physics and being motivated by real life problems in physics, it was at that time that he started to be interested in the area of optimal design of experiments.However, he felt that he needed to broaden his knowledge in probability, and hence in 1976 he enrolled at the Laboratory of Probability, University of Paris VI, where he spent five months studying probability. In 1980, Andrej was awarded a scientific degree of Dr.Sc. (Doctor of Sciences) based on a dissertation “On mathematical background of optimum experimental design”. His book on the same topic appeared in the same year in Slovak and later in English translation (Foundations of Optimum Experimental Design, Reidel (Kluwer group, 1986). During years 1981-1991 he worked at the Mathematical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Here he became the Slovak national delegate at the board of the International Banach Center in Warsaw (1986-1990). After being an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Comenius University for 21 years, he left the Mathematical Institute and joined the University in 1991, where he became a full professor in 1992. In years 1992-1998 he served as the Head of the Department of Probability and Statistics, later, 1999-2002 as Head of the Section of Mathematics of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. In 1992-2006 he was the head of the National Committee for Dr.Sc. Dissertation Defense in probability and statistics.

Andrej continued to pursue his work in optimal experimental design. In 1986, jointly with J. Mikulecká, V. Raffaj, and M. Tokošová, he published the book “Solved Situations in Experimental Design”, in Slovak. In the meantime, Andrej became very interested in nonlinear regression, which became his main research interest. Particularly, small sample properties of estimators in nonlinear regression kept him busy. The results on the uniqueness of MLE, on formulas for the density of estimators in different situations, etc., were summarized later in his book “Nonlinear statistical models” (Kluwer 1993). During this period he was invited to a number of statistical meetings and as a visiting professor at many European universities, such as Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, University of Glasgow, Berlin (east),University of Augsburg, Wirtshaft Universität Wien, Technische Universität Wien, Odense, just to name a few. His most frequent visits were to France, particularly to CNRS laboratories (cooperation with L.Pronzato), then to universities in Grenoble, Bordeaux, and INRA in Versailles. He was asked to join the editorial board of Statistics. For twenty five years (1976-2001), he served on the editorial board of Applications of Mathematics, published in Prague. During recent years Andrej became a member of the editorial board of AMUC (at Comenius University) and of Metrika (Germany 2000 – 2007).

Andrej’s research in the recent years focused mainly on nonlinear models with constraints, on nonstandard properties of experimental design in nonlinear models, and on algorithms for optimum design of experiments with correlated observations.

Professor Pázman is an author or coauthor of six books and more than 90 papers published in scientific journals, such as Annals of Statistics, JSPI, Probability & Statistics Letters, Metrika, Kybernetika, Biometrika, Computational Statistics, Tatra Mountains Mathematical Publications, and many others.

Andrej’s activities extend also to other areas, such as being a member of the program committee of the periodic international conference MODA. The second long-term periodic activity is his contribution to the organization of the Probastat conferences; from the very beginning in 1974 on the national level, with some interruptions in the eighties, and again fromthe start on the international level with the most recent one in 2006.

In addition to research, Andrej devoted his time and effort also to teaching and supervising graduate Ph.D. students. Among his students are Anatolij Dvurečenskij, Peter Čerňanský, Jarka Mikulecká, Emil Horvát, Helena Koutková, Rado Harman, Milan Stehlík, and Klára Hornišová.

Professor Andrej Pázman is a leading personality in Slovak mathematical statistics. He is a member of the Learned Society of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, a member of Royal Statistical Society in UK, of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in the USA, of the International Statistical Institute, and an honorary member of the Union of Slovak Mathematicians and Physicists. He obtained the Gold Medal of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Comenius University, both, the Silver and the Gold Juraj Hronec Medals of the Slovak Academy of Sciences for Contributions to Mathematical Sciences, the Award and also the Premium of the Slovak Literary Found, and the WU Best Paper Award of the city of Vienna.