Herman Chernoff Obituary

The Harvard Department of Statistics is saddened to share that Professor Emeritus Herman Chernoff, age 103, of Boston, MA, passed away peacefully on July 6, 2026.

Professor Chernoff will be deeply missed by his former colleagues, mentees, friends, and family for his warmth, humor, and intellectual curiosity and dynamism.  In May 2023, we were honored to host Chernoff and his family for his 100^th birthday celebration, which highlighted his 70 plus years of contributions to the field of statistics.

Professor Chernoff started his career when he completed a B.S. in mathematics and a minor in physics in 1943 from The City College of New York. For a year and a half, he worked as a physicist with the US Navy by building and fixing electronics. 

He first pursued a master’s and then a Ph.D. in applied math at Brown University and was supervised by his dissertation advisor Professor Abraham Wald. 

Subsequently, Chernoff held faculty positions at the University of Illinois (1949-1952), Stanford University (1952-1974), MIT (1974-1985), and Harvard University (1985-1997); he served as Professor Emeritus at Harvard and MIT.

Chernoff’s contributions to the field included work on large sample theory, experimental design, sequential analysis, methods of presenting statistical data in visual form, and statistical decision-making. 

In addition to his research, Professor Chernoff was an enthusiastic mentor to early-career statisticians, which led him to propose the annual New England Statistics Symposium (NESS).  In honor of Chernoff, the New England Statistical Society established the Chernoff Excellence in Statistics Award in 2019. 

In recognition of his lifelong work, Chernoff received prestigious honors from the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, to name a few, and was selected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.

To celebrate Professor Chernoff’s legacy, the Department of Statistics will publish a forthcoming full obituary for professional journals and schedule a Memorial Session at the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) in Chicago from August 8-12, 2027.