The picture shows 1994 johnf nash, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. (data map)
The following is a brief introduction of 1994 Nobel Prize winners Hasani, Nash and Zelten:
Johnf nash) (1928-)
JOHN F.NASH, an American (1928-), won the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics for his pioneering contribution to the equilibrium analysis theory of non-cooperative games and his great influence on game theory and economics.
John Hasani (1920-)
John C. John Harsanyi, an American, won the Nobel Prize in Economics because he and two other mathematicians made pioneering contributions to the equilibrium analysis theory of non-cooperative games, which had a great influence on game theory and economics.
A Brief Introduction of John Forbes Nash
John Forbes Nash Jr. (1928 June13-) is also an American mathematician and a former teaching assistant at MIT, who translated by john nash, mainly studying game theory and differential geometry. 1994, he and two other game theory experts, John Hasani and Reinhard Zelten, won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
1950, Nash received his Ph.D. from Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies. In that 27-page doctoral thesis, he put forward an important concept, which was later called "Nash equilibrium" game theory.
Lonely genius
Johnf nash1928 was born in a wealthy family in bloomfield, an industrial city in West Virginia, USA. His father is a well-educated electronic engineer and his mother is a Latin teacher. Nash was withdrawn from his childhood. He would rather get into a pile of books than go out to play with children of his own age. But Nash didn't do well in math at that time. Primary school teachers often complain to his parents about Nash's math problems because he often solves them in some strange ways. In middle school, this kind of situation is more frequent. Reinhard Zelten introduced that the teacher calculated the whole blackboard exercise on the blackboard, and Nash could work out the answer in just a few simple steps.
After graduating from high school, johnf nash entered the Department of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. 1948 Nash, a junior in college, was admitted to Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Chicago and University of Michigan at the same time, and Princeton University showed more enthusiasm. When Lefschetz, head of the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University, felt Nash's hesitation, he immediately wrote to urge him to choose Princeton, which prompted Nash to accept a scholarship of 1 150 dollars.
At that time, Princeton had become the mathematical center of the world, with world-class masters such as Einstein gathered. In the free academic atmosphere of Princeton, Nash is like a duck to water. 265,438+0-year-old doctor graduated, and he was already famous before he was 30 years old. From 65438 to 0958, Nash was named the most outstanding figure among the new generation of talented mathematicians by American Fortune magazine for his outstanding work in the field of mathematics.
John turner's most important theory is the "Nash Equilibrium" which widely appears in economics textbooks. The most famous example of "Nash equilibrium" is "prisoner's dilemma", that is, two suspects in a case are tried separately, and the police officer tells the two prisoners that if they don't confess, they will each be sentenced to one year; You confess, the other party does not confess, you are sentenced to three months, and the other party is sentenced to ten years; If both of them confess, both of them will be sentenced to five years in prison. As a result, the two fell into a dilemma of whether to be frank or not. The choice of two prisoners in their own interests is confession. If they don't confess, they are both sentenced to 1 year, and the strategy that was originally beneficial to both sides will not appear. In this way, both of them chose Frank's strategy and were sentenced to five years' imprisonment. The result is called "Nash equilibrium", which is also called non-cooperative equilibrium. Nash Equilibrium was his doctoral thesis when he was 2 1 year old, which laid the foundation for him to win the Nobel Prize in Economics several decades later.
At that time, Nash was "handsome as a god." He is 1.85 meters tall and weighs nearly 77 kilograms. His fingers are slender and elegant, his hands are soft and beautiful, and he also has the appearance of an English aristocrat. His talent and personal charm attracted a beautiful girl-Alicia, who was one of the only two girls in the physics department of MIT at that time. 1957, they got married. It proved after a long time that this may be more important than winning the Nobel Prize in Nash's life.
Even when his career and love are both proud, Nash is also called a "lonely genius" because he likes to be alone and solve math problems that torture people. He is not a person who is good at dealing with people and is popular with most people. He has the common pride and self-centeredness of geniuses. Most of his peers think he is unreasonable. They said he was "withdrawn, arrogant, heartless, ghostly and eccentric, obsessed with his own secret world and unable to understand worldly affairs that others were worried about."
The ghost of Princeton
1958 In the autumn, when Alicia found out that she was pregnant, Nash was full of worries about her future and became more and more uneasy. Dean Martin promised to give him a permanent teaching position that winter, but Nash showed all kinds of strange behaviors: he was worried that being drafted into the army would ruin his mathematical creativity, and he dreamed of building a world. He thinks that every letter in * * * has a mysterious meaning, and only he can understand it. He believes that everything in the world can be expressed by a mathematical formula. He wrote letters to the United Nations and went to Washington to send letters to embassies of every country, asking them to support his idea of building a world. He is so crazy about French that he even wants to write a math paper in French. He thinks there is a mysterious connection between language and mathematics. ...
Finally, Nash was sent to a mental hospital before the baby was born.
A few years later, because Alicia couldn't stand living in Nash's shadow, they divorced, but she didn't give up Nash. Alicia never got married after the divorce. Relying on the meager income of computer programmers and the help of relatives and friends, she continued to take care of her ex-husband and their only son She insists that Nash should stay in Princeton, because if a person behaves strangely, he will be regarded as a madman in other places, and in Princeton, a place where talents are widely accepted, people will lovingly think that he may be a genius.
Therefore, in the 1970s and 1980s, students and scholars at Princeton University could always see a very strange, thin and silent person wandering around the campus. He wears purple slippers and occasionally writes down numerology topics on the blackboard. They called him a "ghost". They knew that the "ghost" was a mathematical genius, but suddenly he went crazy. Anyone who dares to complain that Nash is uncomfortable wandering around will be warned immediately: "You will never be an outstanding mathematician like him in your life!" " "
Nash himself is in a dreamlike state of mind, and his name began to appear in economics textbooks, evolutionary biology papers, political science monographs and mathematical journals in the 1970s and 1980s. His name has become a noun in economics or mathematics, such as Nash equilibrium, Nash negotiation solution, Nash scheme, Degeorge-Nash result, Nash embedding, Nash breaking and so on.
Nash's game theory is becoming more and more influential, but he himself is unknown. Most young mathematicians and economists who use his theory take it for granted that he has died according to the publication date of his paper. Even though some people know that Nash is still alive, they regard Nash as a dying cripple because of his special illness and state.
The legend continues.
Some people say that the scientist standing at the top of the pyramid has an unusually lonely brain, and Nash is crazy because he is too lonely. However, Nash was not alone after he went crazy. His wife, friends and colleagues did not abandon him, but spared no effort to help him and save him, trying to pull him out of the abyss of illness.
Although Nash was determined to resign as a professor at MIT, his colleagues and bosses managed to keep his insurance. When his colleagues heard that he was imprisoned in a mental hospital, they called the famous American psychiatrist at that time and said, "For the sake of national interests, we must do our best to restore Professor Nash to that creative person." More and more people gathered around Nash. They set up a fund to support Nash's treatment and launched a fund-raising activity at the American Mathematical Society. The founder of the fund wrote: "If there is anything that can help Nash return to the field of mathematics, even on a small scale, it is not only good for him, but also good for mathematics." For all that Princeton University has done for him, Nash woke up and said, "I am sheltered here, so I have not become homeless."
The love of loyal wives, wives and friends finally paid off. One morning in the late 1980s, when Professor Dyson from Preston Institute for Advanced Studies greeted Nash as usual, Nash replied, "I saw your daughter on TV again today." Dyson, who has never heard Nash speak, still remembers the shock at that time. He said: "I think the most wonderful thing is this slow awakening. Gradually, he became more and more sober. No one has ever woken up like him. "
Nash gradually recovered from madness, and his awakening seemed to meet an important event in his life: winning the Nobel Prize in Economics. When the King of Sweden announced in 1994 that the winner of the annual Nobel Prize in Economics was johnf nash, many people in the mathematical circle marveled that Nash was still alive.
Nash didn't give up his research because he won the Nobel Prize. In the autobiography of the Nobel Prize winner, he wrote: Statistically, no 66-year-old mathematician or scientist can make further progress in his or her previous achievements through continuous research work. However, I still keep trying. My situation may be that I have been out of touch with the routine because I have had some unrealistic thoughts for 25 years, which is equivalent to providing some kind of vacation. Therefore, I hope to achieve some valuable results through the current research results or any new ideas in the future. "
200 1, after decades of ups and downs, Alicia remarried with johnf nash. In fact, in the long years, Alicia never left Nash mentally. This great woman has been playing with fate all her life, and finally she won. Nash, on the other hand, achieved a balance in the game of gain and loss.
On the evening of June 1 2005, the Nobel Beijing Forum closed in the East Garden Theater of Changpuhe Park on the east side of the Forbidden City. After the lively dinner, Nash did not take the special car arranged by the organizer, but walked out of the Dongyuan Theater with a folder. He walked through Changpuhe Park like an ordinary old man, and then went around the crosswalk on the west side of Nanhe Street to wait for the traffic lights. The green light turned on, and the lonely figure in the corner of the old man drifted away in the twilight and finally disappeared.
Hasani's Life Experience
Hasani 1920 was born in Budapest on May 29th. Hasani is the only child in the family. Hasani's parents had hoped that he would become a drug dealer in the future, but Hasani himself likes to study philosophy and mathematics. When deciding the future development direction after graduating from high school, Hasani respected his parents' wishes and chose the pharmacy major of Budapest University. 1944 obtained the master's degree in pharmacy at the beginning. However, in March of 1944, the Germans occupied Hungary. Haisani was forced to work in the coolie camp from May to June 165438+ 10. In June165438+1October of the same year, the Nazi authorities decided to exile Hasani's coolie camp from Budapest to an Austrian concentration camp. However, just before the train left for Austria, Hasani was lucky enough to escape from Budapest Railway Station. A father Ye Qian he knew told him to take refuge in the basement of the monastery. Hasani was indeed lucky enough, because most of his companions in the coolie camp later died in the concentration camp.
After the war 1946, Hasani re-entered Budapest University to study for a doctorate, majoring in philosophy and taking sociology and psychology as elective courses. Because I had credits when I was studying pharmacy before, I wrote a doctoral thesis after more than one year's study. In June, Hasani received a doctorate in philosophy from Budapest University 1947. From September 1947 to June 1948, Hasani worked as a teaching assistant in the Institute of Sociology of Budapest University. He met Anne here, and later she became his wife? Klauber. 1in June, 948, Hasani was forced to resign from the institute because of his political differences with the authorities. 1950 in April, Hasani and Anne decided to leave Hungary. They illegally crossed the Hungarian border from the marshes with weak border guards. They were glad that Reinhard Zelten's profile was not found by the border guards and fled to Austria. In Austria, Hasani and Anne requested to go to Australia, and their request was approved a few months later. 1950 65438+On February 30th, they arrived in Sydney, Australia. Two days later,195165438+10.2, Haisani and Anne got married.
Hasani's Academic Career and Achievements
Because Hasani's English level is not high, and his degree in Hungary is not recognized by Australia, Hasani had to work in a factory to support his family for most of the first three years in Sydney. In the evening, Hasani went to the University of Sydney to study economics. At this time, he felt that the concept of economic theory and the elegance of mathematical methods attracted him, so he decided to switch from sociology to economics. Although his degree in Hungary was not recognized, the courses he took in Hungary earned him some credits. He can get a master's degree in economics as long as he studies for another two years and writes a master's thesis in economics. In this way, Hasani obtained a master's degree in economics from the University of Sydney at the end of 1953. At this time, Hasani has started his academic career in economics. 1954 I went to the University of Queensland in Brisbane as an economics lecturer at the beginning, and worked until 1956. During this period, Hasani published five papers. Three of them are about the application of von Neumann-Morgan labor protection utility function in welfare economics and ethics.
From 65438 to 0956, Hasani was supported by Rockefeller Research Fund and took his wife to Stanford University for two years. At Stanford University, Hasani's mentor is Ken Arrow. 1958 After finishing his studies, Hasani received a doctorate in economics from Stanford University, when he was 38 years old. 1958, Hasani and Anne returned to Australia, in Canberra.