| Kari Karhunen | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1915 |
| Died | 1992 |
| Nationality | Finnish |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | University of Helsinki |
| Doctoral advisor | Rolf Nevanlinna |
| Known for | Karhunen–Loève theorem |
Kari Karhunen (1915–1992) was a probabilist and a mathematical statistician, of Finnish origin. His name is known to probabilists and statisticians because of the Karhunen–Loève theorem and Karhunen–Loève transform.
Kari Karhunen got his doctoral thesis in 1947 from University of Helsinki, Finland. The topic of his thesis was (in German) Ueber lineare Methoden in der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung,[1] in English On linear methods in probability and statistics. The advisor of his thesis was the mathematician Rolf Nevanlinna.[2]
Kari Karhunen worked as a lecturer at the University of Helsinki before leaving the academic world to be employed by the insurance corporation Suomi, becoming CEO of the company in 1963.
Kari Karhunen served in 1955 in the mathematics machine committee which developed the first Finnish computer ESKO.