Peter Clingerman Fishburn (September 2, 1936 – June 10, 2021) was an American mathematician, known as a pioneer in the field of

decision theory Decision theory (or the theory of choice; not to be confused with choice theory) is a branch of applied probability theory concerned with the theory of making decisions based on assigning probabilities to various factors and assigning numerical ...

. In collaboration with Steven Brams, Fishburn published a paper about approval voting in 1978.

Biography

Intellectual

Fishburn received his B.S. in

industrial engineering Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information a ...

from Pennsylvania State University in 1958, his M.S. in

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 decis ...

in 1961, and a Ph.D. in operations research in 1962, the latter two from the

Case Institute of Technology Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location i ...

. In collaboration with Steven Brams, Fishburn published a paper about approval voting in 1978. In 1996, he won the

John von Neumann Theory Prize The John von Neumann Theory Prize of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is awarded annually to an individual (or sometimes a group) who has made fundamental and sustained contributions to theory in operat ...

. He also won the Decision Analysis Publication Award in 1991 and the Frank P. Ramsey Medal in 1987. He was elected to the 2002 class of

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

s of the

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research (O.R.), management science, and analytics. It was established in 1995 with the merger o ...

Personal

Fishburn retired after many years of research at AT&T Bell Laboratories in the state of

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States. He was married to the theologian Janet Forsythe Fishburn. He died on June 10, 2021, in Racine, Wisconsin.

References

* Brams, Steven J., and Fishburn, Peter C. (1983), ''Approval Voting''. Boston: Birkhäuser. Second edition (2007). New York: Springer. * Fishburn, P.C. (1964), ''Decision and Value Theory''. Publications in Operations Research, No. 10. New York: John Wiley and Sons. * Fishburn, P.C. (1970), ''Utility Theory for Decision Making''. Publications in Operations Research, No. 18. New York: John Wiley and Sons. * Fishburn, Peter C. (1972), ''Mathematics of Decision Theory''. Methods and Models in the Social Sciences, 3. The Hague: Mouton. * Fishburn, Peter C. (1973), ''The Theory of Social Choice''. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press. * Fishburn, Peter C. (1982), ''The Foundations of Expected Utility''. Theory and Decision Library, Vol. 31. Dordrecht: D. Reidel. * * Fishburn, Peter C. (1988), ''Nonlinear Preference and Utility Theory''. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press.

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