Franz Thomas Bruss

Franz Thomas Bruss (born 27. September 1949 in Kleinblittersdorf (Saarland)) is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he had been director of "Mathématiques Générales" and co-director of the probability chair, and where he continues his research as invited professor.

Life
Thomas Bruss studied mathematics at the Universities Saarbrücken, Cambridge and Sheffield. In 1977 he obtained the Dr. rer. nat at Saarbrücken with his thesis Hinreichende Kriterien für das Aussterben von modifizierten Verzweigungsprozessen (Sufficient Conditions for the Extinction of Modified Branching Processes) under Professor Gerd Schmidt, and the legal Dr. en sciences of Belgium one year later.

Academic career
After a scientific career at the University of Namur he moved to the United States and taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Arizona, Tucson, and then University of California at Los Angeles. In 1990 he returned to Europe as professor of mathematics at Vesalius College, Vrije Universiteit Brussel. In 1993 he was appointed chair of Mathématiques Générales and Probability at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he has stayed since then. He held visiting positions at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, University of Zaire, University of Antwerp, Purdue University, and repeatedly at the Université Catholique de Louvain.

Bruss is fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, elected member of the Tönissteiner Kreis e.V., Germany, and member of the International Statistical Institute. In 2004 he received the Jacques Deruyts Prize (period 2000–2004) for distinguished contributions to mathematics from the Belgian Academy of Science Académie Royale de Belgique.

In 2011, Thomas Bruss was honoured Commandeur de Order of Leopold of Belgium.

Under his presidency (2017-2019) the Belgian Statistical Society has received royal favour and become the Royal Statistical Society of Belgium (in French: Société Royale Belge de Statistique - in Dutch: Koninklijke Belgische Vereniging voor Statistiek.)

Contributions
His main research activities and achievements in mathematics are in the field of probability. He published 64 research papers concerning:
 * 1/e-law of best choice
 * Odds algorithm of optimal stopping
 * Galton–Watson processes
 * Resource Dependent Branching Processes
 * Borel–Cantelli lemma
 * Robbins' problem (of optimal stopping)
 * Pascal processes
 * BRS-inequality