Herbert Robbins
E322458
Herbert Robbins was an influential American mathematician known for his work in statistics, probability theory, and the co-authorship of the classic textbook "What Is Mathematics?"
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Herbert Robbins canonical | 5 |
| Herbert E. Robbins | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2332442 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Herbert Robbins Context triple: [Richard Courant, coAuthor, Herbert Robbins]
-
A.
Andrew Heiskell
Andrew Heiskell was an American publishing executive and philanthropist best known as a longtime leader of Time Inc. and a prominent figure in New York’s cultural and civic life.
-
B.
Philip G. Epstein
Philip G. Epstein was an American screenwriter best known for co-writing the classic 1942 film "Casablanca," for which he won an Academy Award.
-
C.
Alfred A. Cohn
Alfred A. Cohn was an American screenwriter and title writer of the silent and early sound film era, best known for his work on influential films such as The Jazz Singer.
-
D.
Harold T. Shapiro
Harold T. Shapiro is an economist and academic leader best known for serving as president of both Princeton University and the University of Michigan and for his influential work at the intersection of higher education and public policy.
-
E.
Robert N. Fitch
Robert N. Fitch was a composer best known for writing the University of California fight song "Fight for California."
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Herbert Robbins Target entity description: Herbert Robbins was an influential American mathematician known for his work in statistics, probability theory, and the co-authorship of the classic textbook "What Is Mathematics?"
-
A.
Andrew Heiskell
Andrew Heiskell was an American publishing executive and philanthropist best known as a longtime leader of Time Inc. and a prominent figure in New York’s cultural and civic life.
-
B.
Philip G. Epstein
Philip G. Epstein was an American screenwriter best known for co-writing the classic 1942 film "Casablanca," for which he won an Academy Award.
-
C.
Alfred A. Cohn
Alfred A. Cohn was an American screenwriter and title writer of the silent and early sound film era, best known for his work on influential films such as The Jazz Singer.
-
D.
Harold T. Shapiro
Harold T. Shapiro is an economist and academic leader best known for serving as president of both Princeton University and the University of Michigan and for his influential work at the intersection of higher education and public policy.
-
E.
Robert N. Fitch
Robert N. Fitch was a composer best known for writing the University of California fight song "Fight for California."
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (30)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
human
ⓘ
mathematician ⓘ statistician ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Leroy P. Steele Prize
ⓘ
National Medal of Science ⓘ |
| coAuthor | Richard Courant ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| educatedAt | Harvard University ⓘ |
| employer |
Columbia University
ⓘ
New York University ⓘ |
| familyName | Robbins ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
empirical Bayes methods
ⓘ
mathematics ⓘ probability theory ⓘ sequential analysis ⓘ statistics ⓘ stochastic approximation ⓘ |
| givenName | Herbert ⓘ |
| knownFor |
Robbins lemma
ⓘ
Robbins theorem ⓘ Robbins–Monro algorithm ⓘ co-authoring What Is Mathematics? ⓘ contributions to sequential analysis ⓘ work on empirical Bayes methods ⓘ |
| languageOfWorkOrName | English ⓘ |
| memberOf | National Academy of Sciences ⓘ |
| notableWork |
What Is Mathematics?
ⓘ
linked to:
What is Mathematics?
|
| occupation |
author
ⓘ
university teacher ⓘ |
| sexOrGender | male ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Herbert Robbins Description of subject: Herbert Robbins was an influential American mathematician known for his work in statistics, probability theory, and the co-authorship of the classic textbook "What Is Mathematics?"
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Herbert Robbins
linked to: Herbert Robbins