A Game-Changing Idea
In 1950, mathematician and Carnegie Mellon University alumnus John F. Nash Jr. developed a concept that changed the way we understand decision making. The Nash Equilibrium, published in Nash’s doctoral dissertation at Princeton University, showed how people make choices in competitive situations when each person’s success depends on the actions of others. The concept laid the foundation for Nash’s award-winning work in game theory — and it still holds relevance 75 years later.
Nash first enrolled at CMU — then the Carnegie Institute of Technology — as a chemical engineering major, but found it didn’t suit his interests. At the urging of faculty in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, he switched his major to mathematics. During the course of his studies, he also took an elective class in international economics that sparked his interest in game theory.
Nash earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mathematics from CMU in 1948 and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton University in 1950. After earning his doctorate, he joined the mathematics faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then later returned to join the faculty at Princeton as a senior research mathematician.
While Nash is best known for the Nash Equilibrium, many mathematicians consider it a piece of his much broader legacy. His later research in geometry and partial differential equations is widely regarded by mathematicians as his most important and deepest work.