Kiyoshi Itō

Kiyoshi Itō (伊藤 清, Itō Kiyoshi) (September 7, 1915 – 10 November 2008) was a Japanese mathematician whose work is now called Itō calculus. The basic concept of this calculus is the Itō integral, and the most basic among important results is Itō's lemma. It facilitates mathematical understanding of random events. His theory is widely applied, for instance in financial mathematics. Although the standard Hepburn romanization of his name is Itō, the ... more

Kiyoshi Itō (伊藤 清, Itō Kiyoshi) (September 7, 1915 – 10 November 2008) was a Japanese mathematician whose work is now called Itō calculus. The basic concept of this calculus is the Itō integral, and the most basic among important results is Itō's lemma. It facilitates mathematical understanding of random events. His theory is widely applied, for instance in financial mathematics. Although the standard Hepburn romanization of his name is Itō, the spellings Itô (as in Kunrei-shiki romanization) or Ito are often seen in the West as well. Itō was born in Hokusei (Inabe) in Mie Prefecture on the main island of Honshū. After high school he studied mathematics at the Imperial University Tokyo, from which he graduated at the age of 23. After that he started to work for the national statistical office, where he published two of his seminal works on probability and stochastic processes. In 1945, he was awarded a Ph.D. for his work. Seven years later he became a professor at the University of... less