David Ruppert

Raymond J. CarrollDepartment of Statistics

Faculty of Nutrition

Texas A&M Universityhttp://stat.tamu.edu/~carroll

A Chronology

• Thesis: 30 pages long, 1977 (rate buster)– Topic: Stochastic approximation

• Interviews at UNC– RJC at talk: “What will you work on next”: “I

think I will try to generalize the work to Hilbert spaces” (honest, I am not making this up!)

• 1979: Thesis published in Annals– ?? references

A Chronology

• 1980: First DR-RJC paper, quantile regression– ?? Citations

• 1981: 2nd SA paper in Annals– ?? Citations

• 1982: 3rd SA paper, Ann Prob– ?? Citations

A Chronology

• 1981: Biometrika paper on transformations and their meaning– ?? Citations

• 1984: Transform both sides model– Done while canoeing in New Jersey, of all

things– Led to book in 1988– ?? Citations

• 1985: The Menhaden fishery and SA: a classic DR applied paper

A Chronology

• 1987: Dave and Ray party, complete with napkins: “We are out of here you idiots” (JF should have learned earlier)

• 1989: Berkson model identification in nonlinear models (with Rudemo and Streiberg)

• 1990: Jed Frees thesis paper on SA in JASA

• 1995: Ruppert, Sheather, Wand– Need I say more?– ?? Citations

A Chronology

• 1997: EBBS– Still in wide use, default bias estimation method– ?? Citations

• 2002: How many knots?– The classic DR paper: definitive and highly

quotable– ?? Citations

• 2008: Asymptotics of penalized splines– No one thought this was even possible– Now papers say they should have done it better!

1975: note the camera. Compare with what he has now

1975: at Michigan State with Patricia

1982, how could I resist? Me and Ruppert!

1985?. Note the concentration

Softball Star, or police lineup

1985: “Camping is housekeeping under adverse circumstances” (DR)

1991, Sydney Harbour

1991 (with Ray Cressie, Noel’s father). The hottest summer I have ever spent. The Canberra folks say “it’s a dry heat”. We Texas folks say: “darn, it’s hot”. The long sleves are because of the solar radiation

With Rick Rossi, Lake Yellowstone, ca 1994. Opening day at Pelikan Creek

Yellowstone river, ca 1996Re teaching: “Never try to teach a pig how to sing: it wastes your time, and annoys the pig” (DR). Most assistant professors should take this advice to heart and quit torturing students.

Hill above the Yellowstone River, ca 1996, having survived a long climb (no fish)

With Rick Rossi, 1999, College Station, at Messina Hof

DR saw the grey and decided to shave it off!

I just thought he should trim it

Rocket Man: no beard

Bunny Man: watch out for the killer rabbits

Original Ruppert Photo, Hanging in suite 525, TAMU

We also have a fabulous bluebird in snow

Get him to show you his cameras

Ruppert edited photo, hanging in Carroll-Ory house, 4 feet by 3 feet

Davis (me and Jianqing had wine, hence the goofy looks), ca 2006

2007 with Matt Wand (note those drinkers )

Official photo (he bought his first tie for this photo)