Larry Rafsky
Born
Lawrence C. Rafsky

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Alma materPrinceton University (A.B.), Yale University (P.h.D.)
Occupation(s)Data Scientist, Entrepreneur
Known forFriedman-Rafsky Test, FAME
RelativesRobert Rafsky (brother)
AwardsTheory and Methods Award, American Statistical Association Lifetime Achievement Award Nominee, Software and Information Industry Association

Lawrence C. Rafsky (Larry Rafsky), is an American data scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. Rafsky created search algorithms and methodologies for the financial and news information industries. He is co-inventor of the Friedman-Rafsky Test commonly used to test goodness-of-fit for the multivariate normal distribution.[1] Rafsky founded and became chief scientist for Acquire Media, a news and information syndication company, now a subsidiary of Moody's.[2]

Research

Rafsky invented the Friedman-Rafsky Test, along with Jerome H. Friedman, now a fundamental procedure in multivariate data. This Multivariate normality test checks a given set of data for goodness-of-fit to the multivariate normal distribution. The null hypothesis is that the data set is a sample from the normal distribution, therefore a sufficiently small p-value indicates non-normal data. In 1981, Rafsky outlined this algorithm in a study published by the Journal of the American Statistical Association.[3] Rafsky and Friedman qualified their test in a 1983 publication in collaboration with Stanford University and Gemnet Software.[1] The two asserted that interpoint-distance-based graphs are capable of being used to define measures of association that extend Kendall's notion of a correlized co-efficient. For this research, Rafsky was granted the Theory and Methods Award from the American Statistical Association[2] in 1981. Rafsky also holds ten US patents, focused on the syndication, delivery, and aggregation of news content.[4][5][6][7] He has a scholar h-index of 15, a g-index of 37, and an Erdos number of 3.

Business

Gemnet Software and FAME

In 1982, Rafsky founded Gemnet, the creator of the FAME (Forecasting Analysis and Modeling Environment) time series database.[8] Rafsky established Gemnet's operations initially in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but was later moved following Citicorp's acquisition of the company. The first version of the software was delivered to Harris Bank in 1983, with a focus on creating a time series-oriented database engine and the 4GL scripting language.[9] This would eventually become known as the FAME model, or Forecasting Analysis and Modeling Environment. In 1984, the company was bought by Citicorp, which led a series of new developments with the FAME program until selling off the unit to private equity firm Warburg Pincus in 1994.[9]

Later ventures

In the 1990s, Rafsky research and management positions at Bell Labs, Citicorp, the IDD Information Services, and ADP. Rafsky worked with future Baidu founder and chief executive officer Robin Li, who helped pioneer early search engine algorithms.[10] IDD, a division of Dow Jones focused on financial news and information's relation to securities pricings. Rafsky partnered with ADP and Townsend-Greenspan, the consulting firm of US economist Alan Greenspan.[11] In 1998, Rafsky founded Gari Software, which he later sold to Wavephore Labs.[12] He subsequently formed Acquire Media, a digital content syndication company in 2001. He retired from full-time work at Acquire Media in 2018, and currently serves the firm part-time doing research in Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, and statistical modeling of the business news ecosystem.[11][13] He also serves as Director of Research for my4, and organization dedicated to investment analytics focused on ESG - Environmental, social and corporate governance.

Personal life

Rafsky was born in Philadelphia. He is the brother of Robert Rafsky, author and AIDS rights activist known for his televised confrontation with Bill Clinton during the 1992 Presidential Election.[14][15] Having spent most of his life living in New Jersey, he now resides in Jupiter, Florida.

Awards

Rafsky received the Theory and Methods award from the American Statistical Association following his work in the development of the Friedman-Rafsky Test. He was also a finalist for the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA).

References

  1. 1 2 Friedman, Jerome H.; Rafsky, Lawrence C. (1983-06-01). "Graph-Theoretic Measures of Multivariate Association and Prediction". The Annals of Statistics. 11 (2): 377–391. doi:10.1214/aos/1176346148. ISSN 0090-5364.
  2. 1 2 "Lifetime Award". www.siia.net. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  3. ↑ Friedman, Jerome H.; Rafsky, Lawrence C. (1981-06-01). "Graphics for the Multivariate Two-Sample Problem". Journal of the American Statistical Association. 76 (374): 277–287. doi:10.1080/01621459.1981.10477643. ISSN 0162-1459. OSTI 1447031.
  4. ↑ US 20120259846, Rafsky, Lawrence C. & Donchez, Thomas B., "Method for selecting a subset of content sources from a collection of content sources", published Oct 11, 2012
  5. ↑ YS 20120243534, Rafsky, Lawrence C.; Ungar, Robert E. & Donchez, Thomas B., "Method and system for pacing, acking, timing, and handicapping (path) for simultaneous receipt of documents", published Sep 27, 2012
  6. ↑ US 20160239494, Rafsky, Lawrence C.; Marshall, Jonathan Alan & Sun, Raymond, "Determining and maintaining a list of news stories from news feeds most relevant to a topic", published Aug 18, 2016
  7. ↑ US 9313149, Rafsky, Lawrence C.; Ungar, Robert E. & Donchez, Thomas B., "Method and system tracking and determining public sentiment relating to social media", published Apr 12, 2016
  8. ↑ Woods, Dan (2008-12-09). "The Humble Developer". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  9. 1 2 Hallman, Jeff (2015-07-12), fame: Interface for FAME Time Series Database, retrieved 2017-04-10
  10. ↑ Barboza, David (2010-01-13). "Baidu's Gain May Be China's Loss if Google Departs". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  11. 1 2 "The Media Committed To Excellence: Acquire Media". thesiliconreview.com. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  12. ↑ Hane, Paula J. (1999-06-14). "WavePhore Changes its Name and Introduces NewsPak". Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  13. ↑ "Lawrence C. Rafsky: Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  14. ↑ Mathews, Jay; Mathews, Jay (1993-02-23). "ROBERT RAFSKY, WRITER AND ACTIVIST IN AIDS FIGHT, DIES". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  15. ↑ Howe, Marvine (1993-02-23). "Robert Rafsky, 47, Media Coordinator For AIDS Protesters". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
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