US: John Nash, Economics Nobel Winner, killed in car crash

A taxi cab crash on the New Jersey Turnpike on Saturday, May 23, claimed the life of famed Princeton University mathematician and game theory pioneer, John Forbes Nash.

Nash, who won the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, is world-renowned for his groundbreaking work in game theory, the mathematics of strategic thinking. His struggle with schizophrenia was chronicled by journalist Sylvia Nasar in the 1998 unauthorized biography “A Beautiful Mind” and a subsequent movie directed by Ron Howard in which Nash was played by Russell Crowe.

Nash was the father of what is known in economics as the “Nash Equilibrium,” a state where rivals in a game, a negotiation or a competition can’t advance their gains by changing their positions and thus reach a steady state or equilibrium. The Nash equilibrium, and Nash bargaining theory, are foundational pillars of modern industrial organization and a considerable body of work that is used in antitrust among other places. Nash bargaining theory has recently played a significant role in U.S. antitrust cases. It was a centerpiece of a speech by U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s chief economist, Aviv Nevo, early last year on the role of bargaining theory in merger investigations.

Nash was in Norway May 19 to receive the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters’ Abel Prize, the most prestigious lifetime achievement award in mathematics. Nash, and his co-author, was honored for their contributions to the understanding of partial differential equations, often referred to as PDEs.

The Abel Prize cited Nash’s “striking and seminal contributions to the theory of nonlinear partial differential equations and its applications to geometric analysis.”

Nash and his wife, who lived in Princeton Township, had just flown back to the U.S. and were taking a cab home from Newark Liberty International Airport when the crash occurred.

Full content: The Wall Street Journal

Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.