Selten, Reinhard (1930-2016), a German economist, helped develop game theory—a branch of mathematics that studies decision-making between rival groups of interests (see Game theory ). In the 1960’s, Selten extended the work of John F. Nash and developed theories that could distinguish between reasonable and unreasonable outcomes to games. Selten applied game theory to such diverse fields as business and biology. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for economic sciences in 1994—the first German to receive the economics prize—and shared the prize with Nash and John C. Harsanyi (see Nash, John Forbes, Jr. ; Harsanyi, John Charles ).
Selten was born on Oct. 5, 1930, in Breslau, then part of Germany, but now in Poland. He was persecuted by the Nazi government in Germany because one of his parents was Jewish, and he had to leave school at the age of 14. Two years later, he went back to school and developed an interest in mathematics. From 1951, Selten was at Frankfurt am Main University, where he studied mathematics and mathematical economics, receiving a Ph.D. in 1961. He then taught at Frankfurt, Berlin, Bielefeld, and also for one year in the United States, at the University of California at Berkeley. In the 1960’s, he worked on models of nuclear deterrence, which had important theoretical rather than practical results. During his time at Bielefeld in the 1970’s, Selden helped to establish the Institute for Mathematical Economics that concentrated on game theory. In 1984, he became professor of economics at the University of Bonn, Germany. Selten died on Aug. 23, 2016.
