Steven J. Brams (born November 28, 1940 in
Concord, New Hampshire
Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the third largest city in New Hampshire behind Manchester and Nashua.
The village of ...
) 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 ...
and
political scientist
Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...
at the
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
Department of Politics. Brams is best known for using the techniques 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 ...
,
public choice theory
Public choice, or public choice theory, is "the use of economic tools to deal with traditional problems of political science".Gordon Tullock, 9872008, "public choice," ''The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics''. . Its content includes the st ...
, and
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). "Soci ...
to analyze
voting systems
An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections ma ...
and
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 ...
. He is one of the independent discoverers of
approval voting
Approval voting is an electoral system in which voters can select many candidates instead of selecting only one candidate.
Description
Approval voting ballots show a list of the options of candidates running. Approval voting lets each voter i ...
, as well as extensions of approval voting to multiple-winner elections to give proportional representation of different interests.
Brams was a co-discoverer, with
Alan Taylor, of the first
envy-free cake-cutting
An envy-free cake-cutting is a kind of fair cake-cutting. It is a division of a heterogeneous resource ("cake") that satisfies the envy-free criterion, namely, that every partner feels that their allocated share is at least as good as any other sha ...
solution for ''n'' people.
Previous to the
Brams-Taylor procedure, the cake-cutting problem had been one of the most important open problems in contemporary mathematics. He is co-inventor with Taylor of the fair-division procedure, adjusted winner, which was patented by New York University in 1999 (# 5,983,205). Adjusted winner has been licensed to a Boston law firm, which formed a company, Fair Outcomes, Inc., that markets several fair-division algorithms.
Brams has applied game theory to a wide variety of strategic situations, from the Bible and theology to international relations to sports.
Education
Brams earned his
B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
in Politics, Economics, and Science in 1962. In 1966, he earned his
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
in
Political Science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
.
Career
Brams worked briefly in U.S. federal government positions and for the
Institute for Defense Analyses
The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) is an American non-profit corporation that administers three federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) – the Systems and Analyses Center (SAC), the Science and Technology Policy Institute ...
before taking an assistant professor position at
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
in 1967. He moved to
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
in 1969, where he is professor in the Department of Politics. He has been a visiting professor at the
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees.
The University of Roc ...
, the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
, the
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...
, the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
, and
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
.
In 1990–1991 he was president of the Peace Science Society (International); in 2004–2006, he was president of the Public Choice Society.
[Public Choice Society http://www.publicchoicesociety.org] He is a
Guggenheim Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
(1986–87), an
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
Fellow (1992), and was a
Russell Sage Foundation
The Russell Sage Foundation is an American non-profit organisation established by Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” It was named after her recently deceased husband, rail ...
Visiting Scholar (1998–99).
Bibliography
* ''Game Theory and Politics.'' New York: Free Press, 1975. Rev. ed., 2004 (Dover).
* ''Paradoxes in Politics: An Introduction to the Nonobvious in Political Science.'' New York: Free Press, 1976.
* ''The Presidential Election Game.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1978. Rev. ed., 2008 (A K Peters).
* Co-edited with A. Schotter and G. Schwödiauer, ''Applied Game Theory: Proceedings of a Conference,'' Vienna, 1978. Würzburg, Germany: Physica-Verlag, 1979.
* ''Biblical Games: Game Theory and the Hebrew Bible.'' Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1980. Rev. ed., 2003 (MIT Press). Japanese and Russian translations, 2006.
* Co-edited with William F. Lucas and Philip D. Straffin, Jr., ''Modules in Applied Mathematics: Political and Related Models,'' vol. 2. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1983.
* Co-authored with Peter C. Fishburn, ''Approval Voting.'' Cambridge, MA: Birkhäuser Boston, 1983. Rev. ed., 2007 (Springer).
* ''Superior Beings: If They Exist, How Would We Know? Game-Theoretic Implications of Omniscience, Omnipotence, Immortality, and Incomprehensibility.'' New York: Springer-Verlag, 1983. Rev. ed., 2007 (Springer).
* ''Superpower Games: Applying Game Theory to Superpower Conflict.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985.
* ''Rational Politics: Decisions, Games, and Strategy.'' Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1985. Reprinted by Academic Press, 1989.
* Co-authored with D. Marc Kilgour, ''Game Theory and National Security.'' New York: Basil Blackwell, 1988. Spanish translation, 1989.
* ''Negotiation Games: Applying Game Theory to Bargaining and Arbitration.'' New York: Routledge, 1990. Rev. ed., 2003.
* ''Theory of Moves.'' Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
* Co-authored with Alan D. Taylor, ''Fair Division: From Cake-Cutting to Dispute Resolution.'' Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
* Co-authored with Alan D. Taylor, ''The Win-Win Solution: Guaranteeing Fair Shares to Everybody.'' New York: W. W. Norton, 1999. Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish translations, 2000; Chinese, Korean, and Russian translations, 2002.
* ''Mathematics and Democracy: Designing Better Voting and Fair-Division Procedures.'' Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008.
* Co-edited with William V. Gehrlein and Fred S. Roberts. ''The Mathematics of Preference, Choice, and Order: Essays in Honor of Peter C. Fishburn.'' Berlin: Springer, 2009.
* ''Game Theory and the Humanities: Bridging Two Worlds.'' Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011.
* ''Divine Games: Game Theory and the Undecidability of a Superior Being.'' Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2018
References
External links
Steven Brams - NYUInterview with the ''Wall Street Journal'' Video of Lecture at MITVideo of Big Think interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brams, Steven
1940 births
Living people
American political scientists
Voting theorists
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
Game theorists
Fair division researchers
University of Michigan staff
People from Concord, New Hampshire
Mathematicians from New Hampshire