George W. Brown (academic)
| George W. Brown | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1917 |
| Died | June 20, 2005 (aged 87–88) |
| Institutions |
Princeton University RAND Corporation Iowa State University UCLA UC Irvine |
| Alma mater |
Princeton University Harvard University |
| Thesis | Reduction of a Certain Class of Composite Statistical Hypotheses (1940) |
| Doctoral advisor | Samuel S. Wilks |
| Known for |
Fictitious play Brown-von-Neumann-Nash Dynamics |
George W. Brown (June 2, 1917 – June 20, 2005) was an American statistician, game theorist, and computer scientist known for his work and research in early computing machinery, game theory, mathematical logic, decision theory and administration. He was a major force in the design and construction of early computing machinery, including the IAS machine, and subsequently directed the construction of JOHNNIAC. His publication of EDUNET in 1967 presaged the details and rise of the early internet. The concept of fictitious play in game theory is due to him.
Brown received his S.B in 1937 and his S.M in 1938, both from Harvard University. He then moved to Princeton University and was awarded his Ph.D there in 1940 under advisor Samuel Wilks. After graduation he was initially unable to get a job in academia due to the anti-semitism of the time, and his first job was in the research division of R. H. Macy & Co. (now Macy's Department Store) where he did statistical studies of the store's operations and met his first wife, Bobbie. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he returned to Princeton to work on military research projects and avoid the draft. In 1944 he moved to the RCA Labs, still in Princeton, and joined the group of Jan A. Rajchman where he helped design the Selectron tube, an early form of digital computer memory. During this time he also contributed to the IAS machine under John von Neumann with whom he would later collaborate on theoretical topics as well.
In 1946 he was finally granted a tenure-track professorial role at Iowa State University as an Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, alongside his long time friend and colleague Alexander Mood. By 1947 he had been granted a full professorship but decided to leave for the RAND Corporation to become chief of their Numerical Analysis Department in 1948. It was at RAND that he began the JOHNNIAC project, named after John von Neumann, and based on the IAS machine and selectron tube memory. Due to his familiarity with the IAS machine and other early computers he worked as a consultant for IBM and other early computing companies. During this time he was also a Visiting Professor of Engineering and Mathematics at UCLA.
...
Wikipedia