08/01/2024

IMPA launches 5th edition of Barry James' book.

IMPA Publishing is releasing a new edition of Barry R. James' book, 'Probability: An Intermediate Course'. The book is in its Thursdays edition and can be purchased from the Brazilian Mathematical Society (SBM) website for R$ 70.

Divided into seven chapters, the book by the American researcher who taught at IMPA for over ten years is not an introduction to the discipline of probability, although it could eventually be used as such.

As prerequisites for understanding this text, a basic course in Differential and Integral Calculus and some familiarity with the concepts of sets and functions are necessary. It is also recommended that the reader have an understanding of classical discrete distributions based on counting permutations, combinations, etc., such as the binomial, hypergeometric, and multinomial distributions.

The exercise lists are a very important part of the book and include purely computational exercises to help the reader practice basic probability calculations and other ideas developed in the text.

About the Author

Barry R. James, an American from Pennsylvania, grew up in Minnesota. Graduating in Mathematics in 1964 with the academic distinction 'summa cum laude' from Williams College, Massachusetts, the researcher obtained his Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of California and, a year later (1972), came to IMPA, where he taught until 1987.

James was a researcher at the University of Minnesota – Duluth, and his preferred research areas were probability and non-parametric statistics. He enjoyed working in partnership with his wife, Kang Ling.

He died at the age of 76 on March 31, 2019, in Duluth, Minnesota.