The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental ...

created in 1948 by

Douglas Aircraft Company The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas; it then operated a ...

to offer research and analysis to the

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is ...

. It is financed by the

U.S. government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

and private

endowment Endowment most often refers to: *A term for human penis size It may also refer to: Finance *Financial endowment, pertaining to funds or property donated to institutions or individuals (e.g., college endowment) *Endowment mortgage, a mortgage to b ...

, corporations,

universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

and private individuals. The company assists other governments, international organizations, private companies and foundations with a host of defense and non-defense issues, including healthcare. RAND aims for interdisciplinary and quantitative problem solving by translating theoretical concepts from formal

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analy ...

and the

physical sciences Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together called the "physical sciences". Definition Phy ...

into novel applications in other areas, using

applied science Applied science is the use of the scientific method and knowledge obtained via conclusions from the method to attain practical goals. It includes a broad range of disciplines such as engineering and medicine. Applied science is often contrasted ...

and

operations research Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve dec ...

Overview

RAND has approximately 1,850 employees. Its American locations include:

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

(headquarters);

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county i ...

;

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

; and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. The RAND Gulf States Policy Institute has an office in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...

. RAND Europe is located in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

. RAND Australia is located in Canberra, Australia. RAND is home to the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School, one of eight original graduate programs in

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public ...

and the first to offer a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

. The program aims to provide practical experience for its students, who work with RAND analysts on real-world problems. The campus is at RAND's Santa Monica research facility. The Pardee RAND School is the world's largest PhD-granting program in policy analysis. Unlike many other universities, all Pardee RAND Graduate School students receive fellowships to cover their education costs. This allows them to dedicate their time to engage in research projects and provides them on-the-job training. RAND also offers a number of internship and fellowship programs allowing students and outsiders to assist in conducting research for RAND projects. Most of these projects are short-term and are worked on independently with the mentoring of a RAND staff member. RAND publishes the '' RAND Journal of Economics'', a

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer revie ...

journal of economics. Thirty-two recipients of the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...

, primarily in the fields of economics and physics, have been associated with RAND at some point in their career.

History

Project RAND

RAND was created after individuals in the

War Department War Department may refer to: * War Department (United Kingdom) * United States Department of War (1789–1947) See also * War Office, a former department of the British Government * Ministry of defence * Ministry of War * Ministry of Defence * De ...

, the

Office of Scientific Research and Development The Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was an agency of the United States federal government created to coordinate scientific research for military purposes during World War II. Arrangements were made for its creation during May ...

, and industry began to discuss the need for a private organization to connect

operational research Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve decis ...

with

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

decisions. The immediate impetus for the creation of RAND was a fateful conversation in September 1945 between General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold and Douglas executive Franklin R. Collbohm. Both men were deeply worried that ongoing demobilization meant the federal government was about to lose direct control of the vast amount of American scientific brainpower assembled to fight World War II. As soon as Arnold realized Collbohm had been thinking along similar lines, he said, "I know just what you're going to tell me. It's the most important thing we can do." With Arnold's blessing, Collbohm quickly pulled in additional people from Douglas to help, and together with Donald Douglas, they convened with Arnold two days later at

Hamilton Army Airfield Hamilton Field (Hamilton AFB) was a United States Air Force base, which was inactivated in 1973, decommissioned in 1974, and put into a caretaker status with the Air Force Reserves until 1976. It was transferred to the United States Army in 198 ...

to sketch out a general outline for Collbohm's proposed project. Douglas engineer Arthur Emmons Raymond came up with the name Project RAND, from "research and development". Collbohm suggested that he himself should serve as the project's first director, which he thought would be a temporary position while he searched for a permanent replacement for himself. He later became RAND's first president and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1967. On 1 October 1945, Project RAND was set up under special contract to the Douglas Aircraft Company and began operations in December 1945. In May 1946, the '' Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship'' was released.

RAND Corporation

By late 1947, Douglas had expressed their concerns that their close relationship with RAND might create conflict of interest problems on future hardware contracts. In February 1948, the chief of staff of the newly created United States Air Force approved the evolution of Project RAND into a nonprofit corporation, independent of Douglas. On 14 May 1948, RAND was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under the laws of the State of California and on 1 November 1948, the Project RAND contract was formally transferred from the Douglas Aircraft Company to the RAND Corporation. Initial capital for the spin-off was provided by the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the dea ...

. Since the 1950s, RAND research has helped inform United States policy decisions on a wide variety of issues, including the space race, the U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms confrontation, the creation of the

Great Society The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The term was first coined during a 1964 commencement address by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the University ...

social welfare programs, the digital revolution, and national health care. Its most visible contribution may be the doctrine of nuclear deterrence by

mutually assured destruction Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy which posits that a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by an attacker on a nuclear-armed defender with second-strike capabilities would cause the ...

(MAD), developed under the guidance of then-Defense Secretary

Robert McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He remains the ...

and based upon their work with game theory. Chief strategist

Herman Kahn Herman Kahn (February 15, 1922 – July 7, 1983) was a founder of the Hudson Institute and one of the preeminent futurists of the latter part of the twentieth century. He originally came to prominence as a military strategist and systems the ...

also posited the idea of a "winnable" nuclear exchange in his 1960 book '' On Thermonuclear War''. This led to Kahn being one of the models for the titular character of the film '' Dr. Strangelove'', in which RAND is spoofed as the "BLAND Corporation". Even in the late 1940s and early 1950s, long before Sputnik, the RAND project was secretly recommending to the US government a major effort to design a man-made satellite that would take photographs from space—and the rockets to put such a satellite in orbit.

Mission

RAND was incorporated as a non-profit organization to "further promote scientific, educational, and charitable purposes, all for the public welfare and security of the United States of America". Its self-declared mission is "to help improve policy and decision making through research and analysis", using its "core values of quality and objectivity".

Achievements

The achievements of RAND stem from its development of

systems analysis Systems analysis is "the process of studying a procedure or business to identify its goal and purposes and create systems and procedures that will efficiently achieve them". Another view sees system analysis as a problem-solving technique tha ...

. Important contributions are claimed in space systems and the United States' space program, in computing and in

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machine A machine is a physical system using Power (physics), power to apply Force, forces and control Motion, moveme ...

. RAND researchers developed many of the principles that were used to build the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...

. RAND also contributed to the development and use of

wargaming A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

. Current areas of expertise include: child policy,

civil Civil may refer to: *Civic virtue, or civility *Civil action, or lawsuit * Civil affairs *Civil and political rights *Civil disobedience *Civil engineering *Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism *Civilian, someone not a membe ...

and

criminal justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...

, education, health, international policy, labor markets, national security, infrastructure, energy, environment, corporate governance, economic development, intelligence policy, long-range planning, crisis management and disaster preparation,

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using ...

and regional studies, science and technology,

social welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

, terrorism, arts policy, and transportation. RAND designed and conducted one of the largest and most important studies of health insurance between 1974 and 1982. The RAND Health Insurance Experiment, funded by the then–U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, established an insurance corporation to compare demand for health services with their cost to the patient. In 2018, RAND began its Gun Policy in America initiative, which resulted in comprehensive reviews of the evidence of the effects of gun policies in the United States. The second expanded review in 2020The Science of Gun Policy
A Critical Synthesis of Research Evidence on the Effects of Gun Policies in the United States, Second Edition analyzed almost 13,000 relevant studies on guns and gun violence since 1995 and selected 123 as having sufficient methodological rigor for inclusion. These were used to determine the level of scientific support for eighteen classes of gun policy.

Controversy

Almost since its inception, the RAND Corporation has been involved in controversial issues—and its reports, recommendations and influence have been the subject of extensive public debate and controversy. Among these have been: * Cold War and potential nuclear conflict

Saul Friedman Saul Friedman (March 4, 1929 – December 24, 2010) was an American political journalist and educator. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1968. Career Friedman graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in philosophy in 1956. During his car ...

(''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With i ...

,'' Nieman Fellow)
"The Rand Corporation and Our Policy Makers,"
September 1963, ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

,'' retrieved November 25, 2022"Albert Wohlstetter, 83, Expert On U.S. Nuclear Strategy, Dies"
January 14, 1997, ''

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 ...

,'' retrieved November 24, 2022Heilbrunn, Jacob
"Real Men of Genius"
(book review of ''Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corp and Rise of the American Empire'' by Alex Abella, 2008, Harcourt), September 21, 2008, ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

,'' retrieved November 24, 2022Rej, Abhijnan: Commentary
The Other Legacy of Robert McNamara,"
June 10, 2016, ''War on the Rocks,'' -- reviewed by Matthew Fay i
"Rationalizing McNamara’s Legacy,"
August 5, 2016,

Niskanen Center The Niskanen Center is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that advocates environmentalism, immigration reform, civil liberties, and strengthening social insurance around market-oriented principles. The center is named after William A. Niskanen, ...

; Fay rebutted by RAND representatives John Speed Meyers and Jonathan P. Wong, a
"In Defense of Defense Analysis,"
September 2, 2016, ''The RAND Blog,'' RAND Corporation; retrieved November 24, 2022Wyne, Ali (RAND Corporation) opinion essay
"A new world order will likely arise only from calamity,"
July 24, 2018, ''

,'' retrieved November 24, 2022 *

City government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...

Clines, Francis X.
"The Men Who Tell City How to Run the City,"
July 8, 1970, ''

,'' retrieved November 24, 2022Szanton, Peter L. (RAND Corporation)
"Analysis and Urban Government: Experience of the New York City-Rand Institute,"
July, 1972, '' Policy Sciences,'' Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 153-161, Springer, at Jstor.org, retrieved November 24, 2022"Data in the Fire Service,"
2015, NFPA 2015 Responder Forum,

National Fire Protection Association The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is an international nonprofit organization devoted to eliminating death, injury, property and economic loss due to fire, electrical and related hazards. As of 2018, the NFPA claims to have 50,000 mem ...

(NFPA), retrieved November 24, 2022Flood, Joe: ''The Fires: How a Computer Formula Burned Down New York City—and Determined the Future of American Cities,'' 2011, Riverhead Books, -- summarized at
GoodReads.com
and reviewed at
GoodReads.com
(by Rob Kitchin), and a
''Accounts,''
(newsletter of the Economics section of the

American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fif ...

), Vol. XV, Issue 2, Spring 2016, page 32, retrieved November 24, 2022 *

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

Naughton, James M.
"Federal Warrant Is Issued For the Arrest of Ellsberg,"
June 26, 1971, ''

,'' retrieved November 24, 2022"The Insider"
(book review of ''Wild Man'' -- biography of Daniel Ellsberg -- by Tom Wells, 2001, Palgrave), July 22, 2001, ''

,''; also reviewed by Michael Young a
"The Devil and Daniel Ellsberg,"
June 2000, ''

Reason Reason is the capacity of Consciousness, consciously applying logic by Logical consequence, drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activ ...

,'' retrieved November 24, 2022Kazin, Michael, reviewer
"Inside Job"
(book review of ''Secrets'' -- autobiography of Daniel Ellsberg, 2002, Viking), November 3, 2002, ''

,'' retrieved November 24, 2022Elliot, Mai (Foreword by James A. Thomson, RAND president)
''RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era,''
2010, RAND Corporation /

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambr ...

, ; reviewed by James M. Carter a

August 2011, '' Journal of American Studies,'' Volume 45 , Issue 3 , pp. 631 - 633, reproduced at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. Retrieved November 24, 2022 * Transparency in government *

National health insurance National health insurance (NHI), sometimes called statutory health insurance (SHI), is a system of health insurance that insures a national population against the costs of health care. It may be administered by the public sector, the private secto ...

"The Real Health Issue,"
June 25, 1974, Page 36, ''

,'' retrieved November 24, 2022 *

Alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomina ...

"Alcoholism Controversy,"
August 4, 1976, ''

,'' retrieved November 24, 2022 * Auto insurance"An Analysis and Critique of the RAND Corporation's Studies in Support of No Fault Laws,"
2000,

Consumer Watchdog Consumer Watchdog (formerly the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights) is a non-profit, progressive organization which advocates for taxpayer and consumer interests, with a focus on insurance, health care, political reform, privacy and en ...

, retrieved November 24, 2022 *

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

Gordon, Michael R.
"Occupation Plan for Iraq Faulted in Army History,"
June 29, 2008, ''

,'' retrieved November 24, 2022 *

Gun control Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians. Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with onl ...

Ingraham, Christopher
"The best available evidence suggests NRA-backed gun policies are making crime worse,"
March 2, 2018, ''

,'' retrieved November 24, 2022Brown, Aaron and Justin Monticello
"Do Studies Show Gun Control Works? No."
March 31, 2022, ''

,'' retrieved November 24, 2022 -- reviewed a
"Video Obliterates Anti-Gun Junk Science,"
April 11, 2022,

National Rifle Association The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent gun rights lobbying organization while cont ...

, retrieved November 24, 2022Stolberg, Sheryl Gay
"Can New Gun Violence Research Find a Path Around the Political Stalemate?,"
March 27, 2021, updated April 2, 2021, ''

,'' retrieved November 24, 2022

Notable participants

* Henry H. "Hap" Arnold:

General of the Air Force General of the Air Force (GAF) is a five-star general officer rank and is the highest possible rank in the United States Air Force. General of the Air Force ranks immediately above a general and is equivalent to General of the Army in the Uni ...

, United States Air Force *

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 economi ...

: economist, won the Nobel Prize in Economics, developed the impossibility theorem in

social choice theory Social choice theory or social choice is a theoretical framework for analysis of combining individual opinions, preferences, interests, or welfares to reach a ''collective decision'' or ''social welfare'' in some sense. Amartya Sen (2008). "So ...

Bruno Augenstein Bruno Wilhelm Augenstein (March 16, 1923 – July 6, 2005) was a German-born American mathematician and physicist who made important contributions in space technology, ballistic missile research, satellites, antimatter, and many other areas. ...

: V.P.,

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate ca ...

mathematician 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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and space scientist * Robert Aumann: mathematician, game theorist, won the Nobel Prize in Economics. *

J. Paul Austin John Paul Austin (February 14, 1915 – December 26, 1985) was Chairman, President and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. From 1962 to 1981 Austin oversaw the growth of the company from $567 million in sales to a $5.9 billion global force. Early life ...

: Chairman of the Board, 1972–1981 * Paul Baran: one of the developers of

packet switching In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping Data (computing), data into ''network packet, packets'' that are transmitted over a digital Telecommunications network, network. Packets are made of a header (computing), header and ...

which was used in

ARPANET The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical foun ...

and later networks like the

Richard Bellman Richard Ernest Bellman (August 26, 1920 – March 19, 1984) was an American applied mathematician, who introduced dynamic programming in 1953, and made important contributions in other fields of mathematics, such as biomathematics. He founde ...

: Mathematician known for his work on

dynamic programming Dynamic programming is both a mathematical optimization method and a computer programming method. The method was developed by Richard Bellman in the 1950s and has found applications in numerous fields, from aerospace engineering to economics. I ...

* Yoram Ben-Porat: economist and President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem *

Barry Boehm Barry William Boehm (May 16, 1935 – August 20, 2022) was an American software engineer, distinguished professor of computer science, industrial and systems engineering; the TRW Professor of Software Engineering; and founding director of the Ce ...

: worked in interactive computer graphics with the RAND Corporation in the 1960s and had helped define the ARPANET in the early phases of that program * Harold L. Brode: physicist, leading nuclear weapons effects expert * Bernard Brodie: Military strategist and nuclear architect * Samuel Cohen: inventor of the neutron bomb in 1958 *

Franklin R. Collbohm Franklin Rudolf Collbohm (January 31, 1907 – February 12, 1990) was an American aviation engineer. Biography He was born on January 31, 1907, in New York City. He died on February 12, 1990. Education He studied engineering at the U ...

: Aviation engineer,

, RAND founder and former director and trustee. * Walter Cunningham: astronaut * George Dantzig: mathematician, creator of the

simplex algorithm In mathematical optimization, Dantzig's simplex algorithm (or simplex method) is a popular algorithm for linear programming. The name of the algorithm is derived from the concept of a simplex and was suggested by T. S. Motzkin. Simplices are no ...

for

linear programming Linear programming (LP), also called linear optimization, is a method to achieve the best outcome (such as maximum profit or lowest cost) in a mathematical model whose requirements are represented by linear relationships. Linear programming is ...

* Linda Darling-Hammond: educational researcher, co-director, School Redesign Network *

Merton Davies Merton E. Davies (September 13, 1917 – April 17, 2001) was a pioneer of America's space program, first in earth reconnaissance and later in planetary exploration and mapping. He graduated from Stanford University in 1938 and worked for the Doug ...

: mathematician, pioneering planetary scientist *

Michael H. Decker Michael H. Decker was the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Oversight. from September 2009 to February 2014. Before that he was Assistant Director of Intelligence, Marine Corps Intelligence, United States Marine Corps. He ser ...

: Senior International Defense Research Analyst *

James F. Digby James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

: American military strategist, author of first treatise on

precision guided munitions A precision-guided munition (PGM, smart weapon, smart munition, smart bomb) is a guided munition intended to precisely hit a specific target, to minimize collateral damage and increase lethality against intended targets. During the First Gulf ...

1949–2007 * Stephen H. Dole: Author of the book ''

Habitable Planets for Man ''Habitable Planets For Man'' is a work by Stephen Dole, first edition published by Blaisdell Publishing Company, A division of Ginn and Company, copyright 1964 by The RAND Corporation. Originally 158 pages, it was republished in a posthumous sec ...

'' and head of Rand's Human Engineering Group * Donald Wills Douglas, Sr.: President,

, RAND founder * Hubert Dreyfus: philosopher and critic of artificial intelligence * Karen Elliott House: Chairman of the Board, 2009–present, former publisher, ''The

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''; Former Senior Vice President,

Dow Jones & Company Dow Jones & Company, Inc. is an American publishing firm owned by News Corp and led by CEO Almar Latour. The company publishes ''The Wall Street Journal'', '' Barron's'', ''MarketWatch'', ''Mansion Global'', '' Financial News'' and ''Private ...

, Inc. *

Daniel Ellsberg Daniel Ellsberg (born April 7, 1931) is an American political activist, and former United States military analyst. While employed by the RAND Corporation, Ellsberg precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the '' Pen ...

: economist and leaker of the

Pentagon Papers The ''Pentagon Papers'', officially titled ''Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force'', is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States in the Vietnam War, United States' political and military ...

Alain Enthoven Alain C. Enthoven (born September 10, 1930) is an American economist. He was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1965, and from 1965 to 1969, he was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Analysis. Currently, he is Marriner ...

: economist, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1965, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Analysis from 1965-1969 *

Stephen J. Flanagan Stephen J. Flanagan is a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. He formerly served as a senior director in the United States National Security Council under the Clinton and Obama administrations as well as senior vice president of the ...

, political scientist,

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...

senior director *

Francis Fukuyama Francis Yoshihiro Fukuyama (; born October 27, 1952) is an American political scientist, political economist, international relations scholar and writer. Fukuyama is known for his book '' The End of History and the Last Man'' (1992), which a ...

: academic and author of '' The End of History and the Last Man'' * Horace Rowan Gaither: Chairman of the Board, 1949–1959, 1960–1961; known for the

Gaither Report ''Deterrence & Survival in the Nuclear Age'', commonly referred to as the Gaither report, is a report submitted in November 1957 to the United States National Security Council and the U.S. president concerning strategy to prepare against the perc ...

. * David Galula, French officer and scholar *

James J. Gillogly James J. Gillogly (born 5 March 1946) is an American computer scientist and cryptographer. Biography Early life His interest in cryptography stems from his boyhood, as did his interest in mathematics. By junior high he was inventing his own ciph ...

cryptographer 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 adv ...

and

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus ( ...

* Paul Y. Hammond: political scientist and national security scholar, affiliated 1964–79, program director 1973–76 * Anthony C. Hearn: developed the REDUCE computer algebra system, the oldest such system still in active use; co-founded the CSNET computer network * Andrew R. Hoehn, Senior Vice President, Research and Analysis * Fred Iklé: US nuclear policy researcher * Brian Michael Jenkins: terrorism expert, Senior Advisor to the President of the RAND Corporation, and author of '' Unconquerable Nation'' *

: theorist on

nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear wa ...

and one of the founders of

scenario planning Scenario planning, scenario thinking, scenario analysis, scenario prediction and the scenario method all describe a strategic planning method that some organizations use to make flexible long-term plans. It is in large part an adaptation and gene ...

Amrom Harry Katz Amrom Harry Katz (August 15, 1915 – February 10, 1997) was an American physicist who specialized in aerial reconnaissance as well as satellite technology. Katz developed methods for aerial reconnaissance supported by space satellites. His wor ...

Konrad Kellen Konrad Kellen (born ''Konrad Moritz Adolf Katzenellenbogen''; December 14, 1913 – April 8, 2007) was a German-born American political scientist, intelligence analyst and author. At different points in his career, Kellen analyzed postwar German s ...

: research analyst and author, co-wrote open letter to U.S. government in 1969 recommending withdrawal from Vietnam war *

Zalmay Khalilzad Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad ( ps, ځلمی خلیل زاد, prs, زلمی خلیل‌زاد; born March 22, 1951) is an Afghan-American diplomat and foreign policy expert. Khalilzad was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to serve as U.S. Spec ...

: U.S. ambassador to United Nations *

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the preside ...

United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's ...

(1973–1977);

National Security Advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils. National secu ...

(1969–1975);

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

Winner (1973) * Ann McLaughlin Korologos: Chairman of the Board, April 2004 – 2009; Chairman Emeritus, The Aspen Institute * Lewis "Scooter" Libby: United States Vice-President

Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former ...

's former Chief of Staff *

Ray Mabus Raymond Edwin Mabus Jr. (; born October 11, 1948) is an American politician and lawyer. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 75th United States Secretary of the Navy from 2009 to 2017. Mabus previously served as the State Auditor ...

: Former ambassador, governor *

Harry Markowitz Harry Max Markowitz (born August 24, 1927) is an American economist who received the 1989 John von Neumann Theory Prize and the 1990 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Markowitz is a professor of finance at the Rady School of Managemen ...

: economist, greatly advanced financial portfolio theory by devising mean variance analysis, Nobel Prize in Economics *

Andrew W. Marshall Andrew W. Marshall (September 13, 1921 – March 26, 2019) was an American foreign policy strategist who served as director of the United States Department of Defense's Office of Net Assessment from 1973 to 2015. Appointed to the position by Presi ...

: military strategist, director of the U.S. DoD Office of Net Assessment * Jason Gaverick Matheny: selected as President and CEO of The RAND Corporation in 2022 *

Margaret Mead Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s. She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard C ...

: U.S. anthropologist * Douglas Merrill: former Google CIO & President of EMI's digital music division * Newton N. Minow: Chairman of the board, 1970–1972 *

John Milnor John Willard Milnor (born February 20, 1931) is an American mathematician known for his work in differential topology, algebraic K-theory and low-dimensional holomorphic dynamical systems. Milnor is a distinguished professor at Stony Brook Un ...

: mathematician, known for his work in differential topology * Chuck Missler: Bible Teacher, Engineer, Chairman and CEO Western Digital *

Lloyd N. Morrisett Lloyd N. Morrisett could refer to: * Lloyd N. Morrisett Sr. (1892-1981), American educator * Lloyd N. Morrisett Jr. (1929-2023), American psychologist and son of Lloyd N. Morrisett Sr. The phrase "Lloyd N. Morrisett, Professor and Associate Dir., ...

: Chairman of the board, 1986–1995 * John Forbes Nash, Jr.: mathematician, won the Nobel Prize in Economics *

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 ...

: mathematician, pioneer of the modern

digital computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These progra ...

* Allen Newell: artificial intelligence * Paul O'Neill: Chairman of the board, 1997–2000 * Edmund Phelps: winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics * Arthur E. Raymond: Chief engineer,

, RAND founder *

Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist who is the current director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th ...

: former intern, former trustee (1991–1997), and former Secretary of State for the United States *

Michael D. Rich The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finance ...

: RAND President and Chief Executive Officer, 1 November 2011–present *

Leo Rosten Leo Calvin Rosten (Yiddish: ; April 11, 1908 – February 19, 1997) was an American humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism, and Yiddish lexicography. Early life Rosten was born into a Yiddish-speaking family in Łó ...

: academic and humorist, helped set up the social sciences division of RAND *

Donald Rumsfeld Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as United States Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and a ...

: Chairman of board from 1981 to 1986; 1995–1996 and secretary of defense for the United States from 1975 to 1977 and 2001 to 2006. *

Robert M. Salter Robert M. Salter Jr. was an American engineer who worked for the RAND Corporation. He was one of the first to study the possibility of using a satellite to collect information. During the 1970s, he advocated the vactrain high-speed transit conc ...

: advocate of the

vactrain A vactrain (or vacuum tube train) is a proposed design for very-high-speed rail transportation. It is a maglev (magnetic levitation) line using partly evacuated tubes or tunnels. Reduced air resistance could permit vactrains to travel at very hig ...

maglev train Maglev (derived from '' magnetic levitation''), is a system of train transportation that uses two sets of electromagnets: one set to repel and push the train up off the track, and another set to move the elevated train ahead, taking advantag ...

concept *

Paul Samuelson Paul Anthony Samuelson (May 15, 1915 – December 13, 2009) was an American economist who was the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. When awarding the prize in 1970, the Swedish Royal Academies stated that he "h ...

: economist, Nobel Prize in Economics * Thomas C. Schelling: economist, won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics *

James Schlesinger James Rodney Schlesinger (February 15, 1929 – March 27, 2014) was an American economist and public servant who was best known for serving as Secretary of Defense from 1973 to 1975 under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Prior t ...

: former secretary of defense and former secretary of energy * Dov Seidman: lawyer, businessman and CEO of LRN * Norman Shapiro: mathematician, co-author of the

Rice–Shapiro theorem In computability theory, the Rice–Shapiro theorem is a generalization of Rice's theorem, and is named after Henry Gordon Rice and Norman Shapiro. Formal statement Let ''A'' be a set of partial-recursive unary functions on the domain of natura ...

, MH Email and RAND-Abel co-designer * Lloyd Shapley: mathematician and game theorist, won the Nobel Prize in Economics * Cliff Shaw: inventor of the linked list and co-author of the first artificial intelligence program * Abram Shulsky: former Director of the Pentagon's

Office of Special Plans An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific d ...

* Herbert Simon: Political scientist, psychologist, won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Economics * James Steinberg: Deputy National Security Advisor to Bill Clinton *

Ratan Tata Ratan Naval Tata, GBE (born 28 December 1937) is an Indian industrialist and former chairman of Tata Sons. He was also the chairman of the Tata Group from 1990 to 2012, serving also as interim chairman from October 2016 through February 201 ...

: Chairman Emeritus of

Tata Sons Tata Sons Private Limited is the parent company of the Tata Group and holds the bulk of shareholding in the Tata group of companies including their land holdings across India, tea estates and steel plants. It is a privately owned conglomerate of ...

* James Thomson: RAND president and CEO, 1989 – 31 October 2011 * Willis Ware:

JOHNNIAC The JOHNNIAC was an early computer built by the RAND Corporation (not Remington Rand, maker of the contemporaneous UNIVAC I computer) and based on the von Neumann architecture that had been pioneered on the IAS machine. It was named in honor of v ...

co-designer, and early computer privacy pioneer * William H. Webster: Chairman of the Board, 1959–1960 * Oliver Williamson: economist, won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics *

Albert Wohlstetter Albert James Wohlstetter (December 19, 1913 – January 10, 1997) was an American political scientist noted for his influence on U.S. nuclear strategy during the Cold War. He and his wife Roberta Wohlstetter, an accomplished historian and intell ...

: mathematician and Cold War strategist *

Roberta Wohlstetter Roberta Mary Morgan (married name Roberta Wohlstetter) (August 22, 1912 – January 6, 2007) was one of a historian of American military intelligence. She authored ''Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision'', which former Secretary of Defense Donal ...

: policy analyst and military historian

References

External links

Official website
*
The Research and Development (RAND) Corporation
from the

Smithsonian Institution Archives Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is an institutional archives and library system comprising 21 branch libraries serving the various Smithsonian Institution museums and research centers. The Libraries and Archives serve Smithsonian Institutio ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rand Corporation Think tanks established in 1948 Federally Funded Research and Development Centers Political and economic think tanks in the United States Companies based in Santa Monica, California Science and technology think tanks Non-profit organizations based in California Human overpopulation think tanks Population research organizations 1948 establishments in California Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in the United States Think tanks based in the United States

Overview

History

Project RAND

RAND Corporation

Mission

Achievements

Controversy

Notable participants

See also

References

Further reading

Books

Articles

Documentary films and broadcast programs

External links