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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 List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
), 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 appl ...
.


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 ...
in 1948. He then studied at the University of California Berkeley. 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 ...
, 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 ...
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 centers, federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, La Cañada Flintridge, California ...
, 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 ...
,
statistics Statistics (from German: '' Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, indust ...
,
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 consi ...
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 inqui ...
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 operati ...
.


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 ele ...
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 enterta ...
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 wi ...
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 po ...
, 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 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 ha ...
,'' Arbor House, 1985, .


See also

*
Subtract a square Subtract-a-square (also referred to as take-a-square) is a two-player mathematical subtraction game. It is played by two people with a pile of coins (or other tokens) between them. The players take turns removing coins from the pile, always removi ...
, a mathematical game invented by Epstein


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, "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