This is a list of notable
economists
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
,
mathematicians
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
One ...
,
political scientists
This is a list of notable political scientists. See the list of political theorists for those who study political theory. See also political science.
A
* Robert Abelson - Yale University psychologist and political scientist with special int ...
, and
computer scientists
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (including th ...
whose work has added substantially to the field of
game theory
Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational agents. Myerson, Roger B. (1991). ''Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict,'' Harvard University Press, p.&nbs1 Chapter-preview links, ppvii–xi It has appli ...
.
*
Derek Abbott
Derek Abbott (born 3 May 1960) is a British-Australian physicist and electronic engineer. He was born in South Kensington, London, UK. From 1969 to 1971, he was a boarder at Copthorne Preparatory School, Sussex. From 1971 to 1978, he attended ...
-
quantum game theory Quantum game theory is an extension of classical game theory to the quantum domain. It differs from classical game theory in three primary ways:
# Superposed initial states,
#Quantum entanglement of initial states,
#Superposition of strategies to be ...
and
Parrondo's games
*
Susanne Albers
Susanne Albers is a German theoretical computer scientist and professor of computer science at the Department of Informatics of the Technical University of Munich. She is a recipient of the Otto Hahn Medal and the Leibniz Prize.
Education and c ...
-
algorithmic game theory
Algorithmic game theory (AGT) is an area in the intersection of game theory and computer science, with the objective of understanding and design of algorithms in strategic environments.
Typically, in Algorithmic Game Theory problems, the input t ...
and algorithm analysis
*
Kenneth Arrow
Kenneth Joseph Arrow (23 August 1921 – 21 February 2017) was an American economist, mathematician, writer, and political theorist. He was the joint winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with John Hicks in 1972.
In economics ...
- voting theory (
1972)
*
Robert Aumann
Robert John Aumann (Hebrew name: , Yisrael Aumann; born June 8, 1930) is an Israeli-American mathematician, and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. He is a professor at the Center for the Study of Rationality in the Hebrew ...
- equilibrium theory (
2005)
*
Robert Axelrod
Robert Marshall Axelrod (born May 27, 1943) is an American political scientist. He is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Michigan where he has been since 1974. He is best known for his interdisciplinary work o ...
- repeated
Prisoner's Dilemma
The Prisoner's Dilemma is an example of a game analyzed in game theory. It is also a thought experiment that challenges two completely rational agents to a dilemma: cooperate with their partner for mutual reward, or betray their partner ("defe ...
*
Tamer Başar
Mustafa Tamer Başar (born January 19, 1946) is a control and game theorist who is the ''Swanlund Endowed Chair'' and Center for Advanced Study Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ...
- dynamic game theory and application
robust control In control theory, robust control is an approach to controller design that explicitly deals with uncertainty. Robust control methods are designed to function properly provided that uncertain parameters or disturbances are found within some (typicall ...
of systems with uncertainty
*
Cristina Bicchieri
Cristina Bicchieri (born 1950) is an Italian–American philosopher. She is the S.J.P. Harvie Professor of Social Thought and Comparative Ethics in the Philosophy and Psychology Departments at the University of Pennsylvania, professor of Legal S ...
-
epistemology
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Episte ...
of game theory
*
Olga Bondareva
Olga Nikolaevna Bondareva (April 27, 1937 – December 9, 1991) was a distinguished Soviet mathematician and economist. She contributed to the fields of mathematical economics, especially game theory.
Bondareva is best known as one of the t ...
-
Bondareva–Shapley theorem The Bondareva–Shapley theorem, in game theory, describes a necessary and sufficient condition for the non-emptiness of the core of a cooperative game in characteristic function form. Specifically, the game's core is non-empty if and only if the g ...
*
Steven Brams
Steven J. Brams (born November 28, 1940 in Concord, New Hampshire) is an American game theory, game theorist and political scientist at the New York University Department of Politics. Brams is best known for using the techniques of game theory, p ...
-
cake cutting,
fair division
Fair division is the problem in game theory of dividing a set of resources among several people who have an entitlement to them so that each person receives their due share. That problem arises in various real-world settings such as division of inh ...
,
theory of moves
A theory is a reason, rational type of abstraction, abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or resear ...
*
Jennifer Tour Chayes -
algorithmic game theory
Algorithmic game theory (AGT) is an area in the intersection of game theory and computer science, with the objective of understanding and design of algorithms in strategic environments.
Typically, in Algorithmic Game Theory problems, the input t ...
and
auction algorithm
The term "auction algorithm"Dimitri P. Bertsekas. "A distributed algorithm for the assignment problem"original paper, 1979 applies to several variations of a Optimization (mathematics), combinatorial optimization algorithm which solves assignment ...
s
*
John Horton Conway
John Horton Conway (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020) was an English mathematician active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He also made contributions to many branches ...
- combinatorial game theory
*
Olivier Gossner - value of information, bounded rationality
*
William Hamilton -
evolutionary biology
Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life fo ...
*
John Harsanyi
John Charles Harsanyi ( hu, Harsányi János Károly; May 29, 1920 – August 9, 2000) was a Hungarian-American economist and the recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1994.
He is best known for his contributions to the ...
- equilibrium theory (
1994)
*
Monika Henzinger
Monika Henzinger (born as Monika Rauch, 17 April 1966 in Weiden in der Oberpfalz) is a German computer scientist, and is a former director of research at Google. She is currently a professor at the University of Vienna. Her expertise is mainly o ...
- algorithmic game theory and
information retrieval
Information retrieval (IR) in computing and information science is the process of obtaining information system resources that are relevant to an information need from a collection of those resources. Searches can be based on full-text or other co ...
*
Naira Hovakimyan -
differential games and
adaptive control Adaptive control is the control method used by a controller which must adapt to a controlled system with parameters which vary, or are initially uncertain. For example, as an aircraft flies, its mass will slowly decrease as a result of fuel consumpt ...
*
Peter L. Hurd - evolution of aggressive behavior
*
Rufus Isaacs -
differential game In game theory, differential games are a group of problems related to the modeling and analysis of conflict in the context of a dynamical system. More specifically, a state variable or variables evolve over time according to a differential equatio ...
s
*
Ehud Kalai
Ehud Kalai is a prominent Israeli American game theorist and mathematical economist known for his contributions to the field of game theory and its interface with economics, social choice, computer science and operations research. He was the Jam ...
-
Kalai-Smorodinski bargaining solution, rational learning, strategic complexity
*
Anna Karlin
Anna R. Karlin is an American computer scientist, the Microsoft Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington.
Biography
Karlin was born into an academic family. Her father, Samuel Karlin, was a mathematician at ...
-
algorithmic game theory
Algorithmic game theory (AGT) is an area in the intersection of game theory and computer science, with the objective of understanding and design of algorithms in strategic environments.
Typically, in Algorithmic Game Theory problems, the input t ...
and
online algorithm
In computer science, an online algorithm is one that can process its input piece-by-piece in a serial fashion, i.e., in the order that the input is fed to the algorithm, without having the entire input available from the start.
In contrast, an o ...
s
*
Michael Kearns -
algorithmic game theory
Algorithmic game theory (AGT) is an area in the intersection of game theory and computer science, with the objective of understanding and design of algorithms in strategic environments.
Typically, in Algorithmic Game Theory problems, the input t ...
and
computational social science
Computational social science is the academic sub-discipline concerned with computational approaches to the social sciences. This means that computers are used to model, simulate, and analyze social phenomena. Fields include computational economics ...
*
Sarit Kraus
Sarit Kraus ( he, שרית קראוס; born 1960) is a professor of computer science at the Bar-Ilan University in Israel. She was named the 2020-2021 ACM Athena Lecturer recognising her contributions to artificial intelligence, notably to multi ...
-
non-monotonic reasoning
A non-monotonic logic is a formal logic whose conclusion relation is not monotonic. In other words, non-monotonic logics are devised to capture and represent defeasible inferences (cf. defeasible reasoning), i.e., a kind of inference in which rea ...
* Ehud Lehrer -
Repeated games
In game theory, a repeated game is an extensive form game that consists of a number of repetitions of some base game (called a stage game). The stage game is usually one of the well-studied 2-person games. Repeated games capture the idea that a p ...
, approachability theory
*
John Maynard Smith
John Maynard Smith (6 January 1920 – 19 April 2004) was a British theoretical and mathematical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he took a second degree in genetics und ...
-
evolutionary biology
Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life fo ...
*
Oskar Morgenstern
Oskar Morgenstern (January 24, 1902 – July 26, 1977) was an Austrian-American economist. In collaboration with mathematician John von Neumann, he founded the mathematical field of game theory as applied to the social sciences and strategic decis ...
- social organization
*
John Forbes Nash
John Forbes Nash Jr. (June 13, 1928 – May 23, 2015) was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, real algebraic geometry, differential geometry, and partial differential equations. Nash and fellow ga ...
-
Nash equilibrium
In game theory, the Nash equilibrium, named after the mathematician John Nash, is the most common way to define the solution of a non-cooperative game involving two or more players. In a Nash equilibrium, each player is assumed to know the equili ...
(
1994)
*
John von Neumann
John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...
-
Minimax theorem
In the mathematical area of game theory, a minimax theorem is a theorem providing conditions that guarantee that the max–min inequality is also an equality.
The first theorem in this sense is von Neumann's minimax theorem from 1928, which was c ...
, expected utility, social organization, arms race
*
Abraham Neyman
Abraham Neyman (born June 14, 1949, Israel) is an Israeli mathematician and game theorist, Professor of Mathematics at the Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality and the Einstein Institute of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerus ...
-
Stochastic games,
Shapley value
The Shapley value is a solution concept in cooperative game theory. It was named in honor of Lloyd Shapley, who introduced it in 1951 and won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for it in 2012. To each cooperative game it assigns a uniq ...
*
J. M. R. Parrondo
Juan Manuel Rodríguez Parrondo (born 9 January 1964) is a Spanish physicist. He is mostly popular for the invention of the Parrondo's paradox and his contributions in the thermodynamical study of information.
Biography
Juan Parrondo received ...
- games with a reversal of fortune, such as
Parrondo's games
*
Charles E. M. Pearce - games applied to
queuing theory
Queueing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or queues. A queueing model is constructed so that queue lengths and waiting time can be predicted. Queueing theory is generally considered a branch of operations research because the ...
*
George R. Price
George Robert Price (October 6, 1922 – January 6, 1975) was an American population geneticist. Price is often noted for his formulation of the Price equation in 1967.
Originally a physical chemist and later a science journalist, he moved ...
-
theoretical
A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be s ...
and
evolutionary biology
Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life fo ...
*
Anatol Rapoport
Anatol Rapoport ( uk, Анатолій Борисович Рапопо́рт; russian: Анато́лий Бори́сович Рапопо́рт; May 22, 1911January 20, 2007) was an American mathematical psychologist. He contributed to general ...
-
Mathematical psychologist, early proponent of
tit-for-tat
Tit for tat is an English saying meaning "equivalent retaliation". It developed from "tip for tap", first recorded in 1558.
It is also a highly effective strategy in game theory. An agent using this strategy will first cooperate, then subseque ...
in repeated
Prisoner's Dilemma
The Prisoner's Dilemma is an example of a game analyzed in game theory. It is also a thought experiment that challenges two completely rational agents to a dilemma: cooperate with their partner for mutual reward, or betray their partner ("defe ...
*
Julia Robinson
Julia Hall Bowman Robinson (December 8, 1919July 30, 1985) was an American mathematician noted for her contributions to the fields of computability theory and computational complexity theory—most notably in decision problems. Her work on Hilbe ...
- proved that
fictitious play In game theory, fictitious play is a learning rule first introduced by George W. Brown. In it, each player presumes that the opponents are playing stationary (possibly mixed) strategies. At each round, each player thus best responds to the empiri ...
dynamics converges to the
mixed strategy
In game theory, a player's strategy is any of the options which they choose in a setting where the outcome depends ''not only'' on their own actions ''but'' on the actions of others. The discipline mainly concerns the action of a player in a game ...
Nash equilibrium
In game theory, the Nash equilibrium, named after the mathematician John Nash, is the most common way to define the solution of a non-cooperative game involving two or more players. In a Nash equilibrium, each player is assumed to know the equili ...
in two-player
zero-sum
Zero-sum game is a mathematical representation in game theory and economic theory of a situation which involves two sides, where the result is an advantage for one side and an equivalent loss for the other. In other words, player one's gain is e ...
games
*
Alvin E. Roth
Alvin Eliot Roth (born December 18, 1951) is an American academic. He is the Craig and Susan McCaw professor of economics at Stanford University and the George Gund (philanthropist), Gund professor of economics and business administration emeritu ...
-
market design
Market design is a practical methodology for creation of markets of certain properties, which is partially based on mechanism design. In some markets, prices may be used to induce the desired outcomes — these markets are the study of auction the ...
(
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( sv, Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is an economics award administered ...
2012)
*
Ariel Rubinstein
Ariel Rubinstein (Hebrew: אריאל רובינשטיין; born April 13, 1951) is an Israeli economist who works in economic theory, game theory and bounded rationality.
Biography
Ariel Rubinstein is a professor of economics at the School of ...
- bargaining theory, learning and language
*
Thomas Jerome Schaefer - computational complexity of perfect-information games
*
Suzanne Scotchmer - patent law incentive models
*
Reinhard Selten
Reinhard Justus Reginald Selten (; 5 October 1930 – 23 August 2016) was a German economist, who won the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (shared with John Harsanyi and John Nash). He is also well known for his work in bound ...
- bounded rationality (
1994)
*
Claude Shannon
Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American people, American mathematician, electrical engineering, electrical engineer, and cryptography, cryptographer known as a "father of information theory".
As a 21-year-o ...
- studied
cryptography
Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...
and
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
; sometimes called "the father of
information theory
Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification (science), quantification, computer data storage, storage, and telecommunication, communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist a ...
"
*
Lloyd Shapley
Lloyd Stowell Shapley (; June 2, 1923 – March 12, 2016) was an American mathematician and Nobel Prize-winning economist. He contributed to the fields of mathematical economics and especially game theory. Shapley is generally considered one of ...
-
Shapley value
The Shapley value is a solution concept in cooperative game theory. It was named in honor of Lloyd Shapley, who introduced it in 1951 and won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for it in 2012. To each cooperative game it assigns a uniq ...
and
core
Core or cores may refer to:
Science and technology
* Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages
* Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding
* Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber
* Core, the central ...
concept in
coalition
A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces.
Formation
According to ''A Gui ...
games (
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( sv, Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is an economics award administered ...
2012)
*
Eilon Solan
Eilon Solan () (born 1969) is an Israeli mathematician and professor at the School of Mathematical Sciences of Tel Aviv University. His research focuses on game theory, stochastic processes, and measure theory.
Biography
Solan obtained a B.Sc ...
-
Stochastic games, stopping games
*
Thomas Schelling
Thomas Crombie Schelling (April 14, 1921 – December 13, 2016) was an American economist and professor of foreign policy, national security, nuclear strategy, and arms control at the School of Public Policy at University of Maryland, College ...
- bargaining (
2005) and models of segregation
*
Nicolas Vieille -
Stochastic games
*
Myrna Wooders
Myrna Wooders (born 1950) is a Canadian economist who has made significant contributions to public economic theory, network theory and game theory. Specifically, her work has focused on coalition theory, public good theory and club theory. Myrna ...
-
coalition
A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces.
Formation
According to ''A Gui ...
theory
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Game theorists
*
Lists of mathematicians by field
Lists of people by occupation