Mises was born in Lemberg, Austria. His father was a technician with the Austrian railways and his brother became an accomplished economist. Mises received his doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1907, became professor of mathematics at the University of Strassburg, France, and later directed the Institute for Applied Mathematics at the University of Berlin. His lifelong preoccupation was the application of mathematics to practical problems.

Mises is best known for his work in statistics and probability theory. In two papers published in 1919, which drew little notice at the time, Mises helped to devise a mathematical definition of probability, thereby quantifying certain vague conceptions held previously. For example, mathematicians know that the probability of getting "heads" on a coin toss is 1/2 because, if we could flip the coin over and over again indefinitely, the frequency of heads would tend toward 1/2. Mises managed to translate this intuition into rigorous...