ABSTRACT
Persi Diaconis is only thirty-eight and yet in the midst of a second career at Stanford University, where he is a professor of statistics. His work in statistics is so good that he recently was named a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. As a MacArthur Fellow, Diaconis will receive $192,000 over the fi ve-year period 19821987, tax-free and no strings attached. The purpose of the awards, for which applications are neither solicited nor accepted, is to free creative people from economic pressures so they can do work that interests them.
