The life and work of Gustav Elfving

This article outlines the scientific work and life of the Finnish statistic ian, probabilist, and mathematician Gustav Elfving (1908-1984). Elfving's a cademic career, scientific contacts, and personal life are sketched, and hi s main research contributions to the fields of statistics, probability, and mathematics are reviewed. (Elfving's pioneering work in optimal design of experiments is not covered, as this topic will be treated elsewhere in this issue.) A chronological bibliography of Gustav Elfving is also given.