Leo Waldemar Törnqvist (14 February 1911 – 18 April 1983) was one of the first professors of statistics in Finland, and the first to achieve international recognition.
He studied mathematics, physics, and chemistry at Åbo Akademi University in Turku, where his interests shifted to economics and statistics under the influence of Swedish economist Arthur Montgomery.
He finished his studies in Turku in 1933 and continued with graduate work in mathematics at Stockholm University, earning a doctorate in 1937 under the supervision of Harald Cramér and Gunnar Myrdal.
[2] After a short-term teaching position at Åbo Akademi University from 1937 to 1938, he began his career working for the Finnish railway service from 1938 until 1943.
Törnqvist wrote out BASIC language programs, and grandson Linus, aged about eleven, typed them in.