Mathematica was founded by

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

professors in 1968 and had a multi-faceted history. * It did consulting work, mostly "to develop mathematical models for marketing decision making." * a leading developer of state lottery systems * developer of RAMIS

Early day participants

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 ...

, economist; one of the company's founders (1969) * Tibor Fabian, Mathematica's Hungarian-born president (1980s) * William Baumol and William Bowen: economists, early day participants

Divisions

Mathematica Policy Research Mathematica, formerly Mathematica Policy Research, is an American research organization and consulting company headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey. The company provides data science, social science, and technological services for social policy ...

⁣ – the only unit still carrying the ''Mathematica'' name. * Mathematica Products Group – best known for developing RAMIS * MathTech, the company's technical and economic consulting group – "research projects and computer systems other than Ramis." A quarter of a century after Mathematica's founding, it "was largely owned by a group of professors in Mathematics and Economics at Princeton University ... as this group aged, they opted to cash out by selling." The result was a 3-way split: two units became

employee-owned Employee stock ownership, or employee share ownership, is where a company's employees own shares in that company (or in the parent company of a group of companies). US employees typically acquire shares through a share option plan. In the UK, Emp ...

companies and another was sold several times.

Mathematica Products Group

In 1982, Mathematica Products Group's RAMIS was described as "nonprocedural" and "bordering on artificial intelligence." This unit of Mathematica was purchased by

Martin Marietta Corporation The Martin Marietta Corporation was an American company founded in 1961 through the merger of Glenn L. Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin. History Martin Marie ...

in 1983, and, eventually by

Computer Associates CA Technologies, formerly known as CA, Inc. and Computer Associates International, Inc., is an American multinational corporation headquartered in New York City. It is primarily known for its business-to-business (B2B) software with a product po ...

. The RAMIS product sold well, initially on mainframes, subsequently on PCs.

Mathematica Policy Research

The

(MPR) unit's strength was in "social experiments and surveys." In 1983 MPR reported "a major survey assignment for the American Medical Association." In 1986, it became a separate,

br>company

MathTech

Like MPR, in 1986 MathTech became an employee-owned company. Known today as Mathtech, Inc.,"Mathtech Inc. was originally formed as the Strategy and Consulting arm of Princeton-based professional services firm Mathematica, Inc." it was described by

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

as "a Washington-area educational consulting firm

References

{{reflist Software companies of the United States