William Newcomb (1927 – 29 May 1999) was an American theoretical physicist and professor at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in respons ...

, who is best known as the creator of

Newcomb's paradox In philosophy and mathematics, Newcomb's paradox, also known as Newcomb's problem, is a thought experiment involving a game between two players, one of whom is able to predict the future. Newcomb's paradox was created by William Newcomb of the ...

, devised in 1960. He was the great-grandnephew of the astronomer

Simon Newcomb Simon Newcomb (March 12, 1835 – July 11, 1909) was a Canadian–American astronomer, applied mathematician, and autodidactic polymath. He served as Professor of Mathematics in the United States Navy and at Johns Hopkins University. Born in N ...

. Newcomb started at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (then University of California Radiation Laboratory) probably in 1955 in the Energy Directorate. He was also an adjunct professor in the

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

Livermore Department of Applied Science since 1971.

References

1927 births 1999 deaths Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory staff University of California, Berkeley faculty University of California, Davis faculty {{US-academic-scientist-stub