Lloyd S. Shapley, father of game theory who shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 2012, has died at the age of 92.
Primarily a mathematician, Shapley helped conceive game theory which tries to explain the choices that competitors make in situations that require strategic thinking. He came up with formulas while Alvin Roth, who he shared the Nobel Prize with, put them into practice. Together they sparked a new enthusiasm in this field of research and helped improve market performance immensely.
As reported in Mercury News, Shapely graduated from Harvard, after being drafted into the military in 1943, with a degree in mathematics. He then went on to study at Princeton University and ended up working for 27 years at RAND as a research mathematician. On receiving the Nobel Prize, Shapely hinted at his amazement at receiving the award for economics by saying he “never in his life took a course in economics”
I consider myself a mathematician, and the award is for economics. I never, never in my life took a course in economics
The New York Times reflects on his life while serving in the army during World War Two. Shapely joined the Army Air Corps where he was sent to western China. It was here that he was assigned to a weather station that intercepted enemy broadcasts and was awarded the Bronze Star for deciphering a Soviet weather code.
His father was Harlow Shapley, a noted astronomer at Harvard University and helped estimate the size of the Milky Way galaxy. Shapely jokingly stated that although his father had done many great things “he did not get a Nobel Prize.”
Now, I’m ahead of my father. He got other prizes. … But he did not get a Nobel Prize.
Dr Shapely leaves behind two sons, Peter and Christopher, and two grandchildren. His wife, Marian, died in 1997 after 42 years together.
