Lawrence David Brown, Miers Busch Professor of Statistics at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, died February 21. He was 77.

After graduating from California Institute of Technology in 1961, Dr. Brown earned his PhD in mathematics from Cornell University in 1964. Prior to joining the Penn faculty, he taught at University of California, Berkeley; Cornell; and Rutgers University. He came to Penn in 1994 as the Miers Busch Professor in the Department of Statistics at Wharton.

Dr. Brown highly valued teaching and mentoring students and young researchers; he received the Provost’s Award for Distinguished PhD Teaching and Mentoring in 2011 (Almanac April 12, 2011). He supervised 37 PhD students, many of whom hold leading positions in the United States and abroad. He also served on the Provost search committee in 2004 (Almanac September 28, 2004).

Dr. Brown published five books and more than 170 journal articles. He was noted for path-breaking work in statistical decision theory and nonparametric function estimation. He also made fundamental contributions to a number of additional areas in statistics, including sequential analysis, the foundations of statistical inference, properties of exponential families, interval estimation, bioequivalence and the analysis of census data and call center data.

Dr. Brown was the recipient of many honors, including: membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; an honorary doctor of science degree from Purdue University in 1993; the Wilks Memorial Award from the American Statistical Association in 2002; and the C. R. and B. Rao Prize in 2007. He was president of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and co-editor of The Annals of Statistics. He served on panels and committees at the National Research Council (NRC) and the National Academy of Sciences, and chaired the NRC Committee on National Statistics 2010-2018.

Dr. Brown is survived by his wife, Linda Zhao; children, Yona Alper, Sarah Ackman, Franklin, Louis, and Yiwen Zhao; brothers, Marshall (Jane) and Harold (Eileen); and 19 grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at Penn on November 30 (details to follow) followed by a one day workshop, and there will be an opportunity to contribute in Dr. Brown’s name to a fund on behalf of graduate students. Contact Linda Zhao at lzhao@wharton.upenn.edu for details.