Louis Elyahu Guttman

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Louis (Eliyahu) Guttman (February 10, 1916 – October 25, 1987; Hebrew: לואיס (אליהו) גוטמן‎) was an Israeli mathematician and Professor of Social and Psychological Assessment at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He founded and was the scientific director of the Israel Institute of Applied Social Research, later renamed the Guttman Institute before finally becoming the Guttman Center (part of the Israel Democracy Institute.

Biography

Guttman was born in New York City on February 10, 1916 and grew up in the Jewish community of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Guttman received both his BA in 1936 and MA in 1939 at the University of Minnesota, and his PhD in Social and Psychological Measurement in 1942.

From 1941 to 1947 Guttman was professor of sociology at Cornell University, while as part of the World War II effort, he also served as an Expert Consultant to the US Army’s Research Branch. In 1947 Guttman and his wife Ruth emigrated to Palestine.

He was member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and foreign Honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and President of the Psychometric Society. In 1956 he was elected Stanford University: Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. In 1962 he received the Rothschild Prize and in 1971 Science included Guttman in a list of the 62 most important contributors to scientific research in the social sciences since the beginning of the 20th century. Other awards were:

• 1974 Regents of the University of Minnesota - Outstanding Achievement Award
• 1978 Israel Prize in the social sciences
• 1984 Educational Testing Service Measurement Award from Princeton University.

Guttman died on October 25, 1987, while on sabbatical in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States.

Work

Guttman research interests were in the fields of scale analysis, facet theory. His work left a legacy of major developments in the theory and practice of scale and factor analysis, multidimensional scaling and facet theory. His mathematical and philosophical treatments of Factor analysis are among the important parts of his scientific legacy.

His earlier work in scaling analysis produced what has become to be known as the Guttman scale. Notably, Guttman first proved several fundamental theorems in matrix algebra, as discussed in papers by Hubert, Meulman and Heiser (2000) and Takane and Yanai (2005). Several of Guttman’s contributions have been incorporated into computer packages, among them Smallest Space Analysis (SSA) and Partial Order Scalogram Analysis (POSAC).

Guttman was described as a brilliant innovator who "saw theory in method and method in theory", was "informed by high sophistication in mathematics, statistics, sociology and psychology", and one who "made a major contribution to democratic policy-making in the new state" and “was concerned with the 'well-being' of individuals, groups and society"

ויקיפדיה: אליהו לואיס (לואי) גוטמן (10 בפברואר 1916 - 25 באוקטובר 1987) היה פרופסור למדידה חברתית ופסיכולוגית, סטטיסטיקאי מתמטי וחוקר מדעי ההתנהגות. שנים רבות עמד בראש המכון למחקר חברתי שימושי. נודע בעולם כמפתח תורת השטחות והוגה "סולם גוטמן" לבחינת פרדיגמות