Editing George Dantzig (section)

==Education==
Dantzig attended Powell Junior High School and [[Cardozo Education Campus|Central High School]]. By the time he reached high school, he was already fascinated by geometry, and this interest was further nurtured by his father, challenging him with complicated problems, particularly in [[projective geometry]].<ref name= "JH05"/><ref name="mmp"/>

George Dantzig received his B.S. from [[University of Maryland]] in 1936 in mathematics and physics. He earned his master's degree in mathematics from the [[University of Michigan]] in 1937. After working as a junior statistician at the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1937 to 1939,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.stanford.edu/pr/2005/pr-dantzigobit-052505.html |title=George B. Dantzig, operations research giant, dies at 90 |author=Dawn Levy |date=May 25, 2005 |publisher=[[Stanford University]] News Service |access-date=February 22, 2021 |archive-date=February 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226053552/https://news.stanford.edu/pr/2005/pr-dantzigobit-052505.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> he enrolled in the doctoral program in mathematics at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], where he studied statistics under [[Jerzy Spława-Neyman]].

During his study in 1939, Dantzig solved two unproven statistical theorems due to a misunderstanding. Near the beginning of a class, Professor Spława-Neyman wrote two problems on the blackboard. Dantzig arrived late and assumed that they were a homework assignment. According to Dantzig, they "seemed to be a little harder than usual", but a few days later he handed in completed solutions for both problems, still believing that they were an assignment that was overdue.<ref name="mmp"/><ref name=snopes>{{cite web |url=http://www.snopes.com/college/homework/unsolvable.asp |publisher=Snopes |title=The Unsolvable Math Problem |date=June 28, 2011}}</ref> Six weeks later, an excited Spława-Neyman eagerly told him that the "homework" problems he had solved were two of the most famous unsolved problems in [[statistics]].<ref name= "JH05"/><ref name="mmp"/> He had prepared one of Dantzig's solutions for publication in a mathematical journal.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dantzig|first1=George|title=On the non-existence of tests of "Student's" hypothesis having power functions independent of σ|journal=The Annals of Mathematical Statistics|date=1940|doi=10.1214/aoms/1177731912|volume=11|issue=2|pages=186–192|doi-access=free}}</ref> This story began to spread and was used as a motivational lesson demonstrating the power of positive thinking. Over time, some facts were altered, but the basic story persisted in the form of an [[urban legend]] and as an introductory scene in the movie ''[[Good Will Hunting]]''.<ref name=snopes/>

Dantzig recalled in a 1986 interview in the ''[[College Mathematics Journal]]'', "A year later, when I began to worry about a thesis topic, Spława-Neyman just shrugged and told me to wrap the two problems in a binder and he would accept them as my thesis."<ref name=AB>{{cite journal |url=http://rev-inv-ope.univ-paris1.fr/fileadmin/rev-inv-ope/files/26305/IO-26305-1.pdf |title=Professor George Bernard Dantzig, Life & Legend |first1=Sira M. |last1=Allende |first2=Carlos N. |last2=Bouza |journal=Revista Investigación Operacional |year=2005 |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=205–11 |access-date=2019-03-24 |archive-date=2018-04-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180421052355/http://rev-inv-ope.univ-paris1.fr/fileadmin/rev-inv-ope/files/26305//IO-26305-1.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Years later, another researcher, [[Abraham Wald]], was preparing to publish a paper where he had arrived at a conclusion for the second problem when he learned of Dantzig's earlier solution. When Dantzig suggested publishing jointly, Wald simply added Dantzig's name as co-author.<ref name="mmp"/><ref name=AB/><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dantzig|first1=George|last2=Wald|first2=Abraham|title=On the Fundamental Lemma of Spława-Neyman and Pearson|journal=The Annals of Mathematical Statistics|date=1951|url=http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aoms/1177729695|access-date=14 October 2014|doi=10.1214/aoms/1177729695|volume=22|pages=87–93|doi-access=free}}</ref>