During the 1930s Jerzy Neyman developed a new paradigm for theoretical sta- tistics, which derives optimal statistical procedures as solutions to clearly stated mathe matical problems. He applied these ideas to the theoriesof hypothesistesting, estima- tion by confidence intervals, and survey sampling. During the following decades this became the dominant approach to theore- tical statistics. In addition to his scientific work, Neyman was a far-seeing and highly efficient administrator who in the decade 1945-1955 created in Berkeleya substantial Department of Statistics of international stature. Starting in 1945 he also established a Berkeley series of Symposia on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, meeting at five-year intervals, which for the next twenty-five years became the principal series of international meetings in statistics. Neyman's long life was dominated by his work, of which he took a comprehen- siveview encompassing its academic, administrative, and social aspects. Neyman's top priority after his arrival in Berkeley was the development of a statistics program, that is, a systematic set of courses and a faculty to teach them. He quickly organized a nu- mber of core courses and began to train some graduate students and one temporary instructor in his own approach to statistics. Administratively, he set up a statistical laboratory as a semiautonomous unit within the Mathematics Department