Nash, John Forbes, Jr. (1928-2015), was an American mathematician. He contributed greatly to the development of game theory —a method of studying strategic decision-making situations in which the choices of different participants influence one another. Nash proposed a solution for game situations in which no participant will benefit by changing strategy, thereby creating a balanced and stable point of the system. This concept, known as Nash equilibrium, has influenced many fields, including economics , political science , computer science , and biology . Nash also developed important concepts used in conflict resolution and negotiations .
Nash was born in Bluefield, West Virginia, on June 13, 1928. He received a Ph.D. degree from Princeton University in 1950. He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1951 to 1959, when his career was interrupted by periodic struggles with delusions brought on by schizophrenia , a severe mental disease. He later returned to Princeton. Nash shared the 1994 Nobel Prize in economic sciences with the Hungarian-born American economist John C. Harsanyi and the German economist Reinhard Selten . A biography of Nash—A Beautiful Mind (1998), by German-born author Sylvia Nasar—was made into a motion picture in 2001. Nash died in an automobile crash on May 23, 2015.
See also Game theory .
