lehmann obtained his ma in mathematics in 1942 and his phd (under jerzy neyman) in 1946, at the university of california, berkeley, where he taught from 1942. from august 1944 to august 1945 he worked as an operations analyst for the united states air force on guam. he taught at columbia university and at princeton university during 1950–51, and then during 1951–1952 he was a visiting associate professor at stanford university.