David Aldous's Home Page

NEW (April 2012) Here is a cover page to my upcoming summer mini-course on FMIE (Finite Markov Information Exchange) Processes.

Here is an interview of me by a non-mathematician. Reporting conversation in print shows that I have an embarrassingly inarticulate stream-of-consciousness speaking style -- do not take these to be my considered opinions!

Teaching

In Spring 2012 I am not doing classroom teaching, being attached to the MSRI program Random Spatial Processes. But I will also be on campus regularly.

Semester Course number Topic of course Comments

Fall 2012 STAT 98/198 Introduction to Wall Street Student-taught DeCal course; I am only the sponsor. (Link is to Spring course; will be updated for Fall).

Fall 2012 STAT 134 Concepts of Probability Upper division post-calculus introduction to the mathematics of probability. Note: Link goes to previous year's course; will be updated over the summer.

Fall 2012 STAT 205A Probability Theory First year graduate core course: measure-theoretic probability (first part).

Here is a complete list of courses since 2001 (only the most recent version of each course is listed).

Semester	Course number	Topic of course	Comments
Fall 2012	STAT 98/198	Introduction to Wall Street	Student-taught DeCal course; I am only the sponsor. (Link is to Spring course; will be updated for Fall).
Fall 2012	STAT 134	Concepts of Probability	Upper division post-calculus introduction to the mathematics of probability. Note: Link goes to previous year's course; will be updated over the summer.
Fall 2012	STAT 205A	Probability Theory	First year graduate core course: measure-theoretic probability (first part).

Seminars

I coordinate the monthly Interdisciplinary Stochastic Processes Colloquium.

My Research Site

short cut to Papers and preprints and to slides from recent talks.

"Probability and the Real World" project

This is a long-term, and overly ambitious, project to articulate what mathematical probability says about the real world. Some self-contained existing pieces are

Non-technical books on probability: list and brief reviews
Undergraduate Research Projects.
My review of The Black Swan.
Two slightly different versions of the same talk:
- (for non-mathematicians) The top ten things that math probability says about the real world. (1/12 version)
- (for mathematicians) Reflections on devising a "probability in the real world" course. (5/12 version)

There is also a lot of material online associated with my junior/senior course From Undergraduate Probability Theory to the Real World .

NEW (1/12): Draft write-up of 13 lectures.

The non-mathematical parts of the project are being developed as a web site, intended as a more idiosyncratic counterpart to two existing sites with somewhat related themes: Understanding Uncertainty and Chance News. The current "beta version" set of pages are sufficiently incomplete and fragmented that I don't want them quoted or linked to; but if you really want to enter the maze at your own risk, start with this cover page to the beta version.

Essays and musings: The blog alternative!

The link goes to brief conceptual pieces, not intended for more formal publication. But not to be outdone by Rick's Ramblings or Terence's Stuff, while notoriously less energetic than either of those monthly authors, let me introduce David's Musings, to appear twice yearly in Bernoulli News.

Popular books on Chance, and Teaching Non-Technical Probability Vol 17, Number 1 (May 2010).
What are the Limits to "Rules Plus Dice" Modeling? Vol 17, Number 2 (November 2010).
In search of a missing word: entropy and ????. Vol 18, Number 1 (May 2011). David Stirzaker pointed out a related discussion by David Ellerman who calls 1-S logical entropy, and that I.J. Good has called it the quadratic diversity index.
What should our college students know (aside from what we teach them)? Vol 18, Number 2 (November 2011).
On password security, Republican candidates and predictability of economic crises. Vol 19, Number 1 (May 2011).

Books

Probability Approximations via the Poisson Clumping Heuristic	Springer, 1989
Reversible Markov Chains and Random Walks on Graphs (with Jim Fill)	Draft chapters

Professional Activities

Associate Editor, Random Structures and Algorithms and American Mathematical Monthly.
Chair of committee that awards the biennial Loeve Prize in mathematical probability.
Fellow of the Royal Society
Foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences

Personal stuff

1976 Cambridge photo	1995 official photo	2005 unofficial photo
I wish I'd said that	Mathematical humor (original!)	2011 official photo
The nine best science fiction novels you've never heard of	2007 unofficial photo	Academic vita
Most ambiguous praise I received in 2009	Impressions from my year at Microsoft Research	Why my wife calls me Le Grand Fromage

Contact information

Postal Address: Statistics Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3860
Telephone: 510-642-3295
Fax: 510-642-7892
E-mail address: aldous_AT_stat.berkeley.edu