Richard H. Stockbridge is a
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of
Mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His contributions to research primarily involve
stochastic control theory,
optimal stopping
In mathematics, the theory of optimal stopping or early stopping
: (For French translation, secover storyin the July issue of ''Pour la Science'' (2009).) is concerned with the problem of choosing a time to take a particular action, in order to ...
and
mathematical finance
Mathematical finance, also known as quantitative finance and financial mathematics, is a field of applied mathematics, concerned with mathematical modeling in the financial field.
In general, there exist two separate branches of finance that req ...
. Most notably, alongside Professors
Thomas G. Kurtz,
Kurt Helmes, and
Chao Zhu, he developed the methodology of using
linear programming
Linear programming (LP), also called linear optimization, is a method to achieve the best outcome (such as maximum profit or lowest cost) in a mathematical model whose requirements and objective are represented by linear function#As a polynomia ...
to solve stochastic control problems.
Education
Stockbridge obtained his Ph.D. from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison
A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
under the supervision of Thomas G. Kurtz with a dissertation entitled "Time-Average Control of Martingale Problems". He also holds a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and attended
St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, for his
baccalaureate studies.
Academic career
Following the awarding of his Ph.D., Stockbridge served as an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...
from 1987 to 1988. He then took an assistant professor position at the
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...
from 1988 to 1993, leading to an associate professorship which he held until 2000. Later, Stockbridge began working at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and became a full professor in 2002. In 2018, he was awarded the title of "distinguished professor" by the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Distinguished Faculty Committee.
Stockbridge has also held various visiting positions, including:
* ''Visiting Scholar,''
Heriot Watt University, School of Mathematical and Computer Science,
Edinburgh, Scotland
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, March–August 2016
* ''Sabbaticant Professor'',
University of Botswana
The University of Botswana (UB) was established in 1982, as the first institution of higher education in Botswana. The university currently has three campuses: one in the capital city Gaborone, one in Francistown, and another in Maun. The Unive ...
, Department of Mathematics, July 2008 – January 2009
* ''Visiting Fellow'',
Bath University, Department of Mathematical Sciences,
Bath, England
Bath ( RP: , ) is a city in Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 census, the population was 94,092. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, west of London and southeast of Bristol. The city becam ...
, January–July 1997
* ''Visiting Assistant Professor,
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...
'', Department of Mathematics,
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...
, 1988–89
Research
Professor Stockbridge's research is focused on developing
linear programming
Linear programming (LP), also called linear optimization, is a method to achieve the best outcome (such as maximum profit or lowest cost) in a mathematical model whose requirements and objective are represented by linear function#As a polynomia ...
techniques in
stochastic control
Stochastic control or stochastic optimal control is a sub field of control theory that deals with the existence of uncertainty either in observations or in the noise that drives the evolution of the system. The system designer assumes, in a Bayesi ...
. These techniques give an alternative formulation to the traditional
dynamic programming framework used in stochastic control problems and have been demonstrated in examples including control of the running maximum of a diffusion, optimal stopping problems, and regime-switching diffusions.
Through the completion of his Ph.D. dissertation, Stockbridge examined the relationship between long-term average stochastic control problems and linear programs spanning the space of stationary distributions for that controlled process, ultimately concluding their equivalence. This dissertation served as a basis for significant work in the field.
Following his graduate studies, Stockbridge helped expand the applications of this equivalence between linear programming and stochastic control to include discounted, first-exit and finite horizon problems.
Publications
''Notable publications by Richard Stockbridge include:''
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stockbridge, Richard
Living people
American mathematicians
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee faculty
Year of birth missing (living people)