Richard Arnold Epstein (born March 5, 1927 in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

), also known under the pseudonym E. P. Stein, is an American

game theorist 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 ...

Education

He obtained his A.B. degree from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in 1948. He then studied at the

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

. He received his doctorate in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, on the Born formalization of isochromatic lines, in 1961, from the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat de Barcelona, UB; ; es, link=no, Universidad de Barcelona) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, in Spain. With 63,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities i ...

Career

He then shifted from

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter wa ...

to space communications, and worked for eighteen years as an electronics and communications engineer for various U.S. space and missile programs. He was variously employed by Parsons-Aerojet Company at

Cape Canaveral , image = cape canaveral.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991 , map = Florida#USA , map_width = 300 , type =Cape , map_caption = Location in Florida , location ...

, Glenn L. Martin Company, TRW Space Technology Laboratories, the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

, and Hughes Aircraft Space Systems Division. Epstein has numerous technical publications in the areas of

probability theory Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set o ...

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation 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 ...

, and

space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider ...

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

s. In 1956, he was made a member of the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

Achievements

''The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic'' ranks as the most popular of Epstein's technical books. He served as a consultant to public and private

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

s in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

and

Macao Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

, and has testified on technical aspects of gambling in several court cases. Under the pseudonym "E. P. Stein", he authored various popular works of fiction as well as historic and non-fictional books, and writes for TV and motion pictures.

Books by Epstein

* Richard A. Epstein, ''The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic'' (revised edition), Academic Press, 1995, . (Second edition), Academic Press, 2009, .

Selected journal publications by Epstein

* Richard A. Epstein, "An automatic synchronization technique," ''IEEE Transactions on Communication Technology,'' Vol. 13(4), pp. 547–550, 1965. * Richard A. Epstein, "Relative coverage of large ground antennas," ''IEEE Transactions on Space Electronics and Telemetry,'' Vol. 10(1), pp. 31–83, 1964.

Popular works under the pseudonym E. P. Stein

* Anna K. Brando and E. P. Stein, ''

Brando Brando may refer to: People * Marlon Brando (1924–2004), American actor ** Christian Brando (1958–2008), son of Marlon Brando ** Marlon_Brando#Final_years_and_death, Miko C. Brando, Marlon Brando's son and Michael Jackson's one-time friend, bod ...

for Breakfast'', Berkley Pub Group, 1980, . * E. P. Stein, ''Flight of the

Vin Fiz The ''Vin Fiz Flyer'' was an early Wright Brothers Model EX pusher biplane that in 1911 became the first aircraft to fly coast-to-coast across the U.S., a journey that took almost three months. History The publisher William Randolph Hearst h ...

,'' Arbor House, 1985, .

Notes

References

* P. Green Jr., "Review of 'The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic' (Epstein, R. A.; 1967)," ''IEEE Transactions on Information Theory'', Vol. 15(5), pp. 637–638, 1969. *

Richard W. Hamming Richard Wesley Hamming (February 11, 1915 – January 7, 1998) was an American mathematician whose work had many implications for computer engineering and telecommunications. His contributions include the Hamming code (which makes use of a Ham ...

, "Games of Chance. (Book Reviews: The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic)," ''Science'', Vol. 161(3844), pp. 878, 1968.

External links

Richard Arnold Epstein at the MathSciNet

{{DEFAULTSORT:Epstein, Richard A. 21st-century American physicists Living people 1927 births University of Barcelona alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Probability theorists American expatriates in Spain