Robert B. Wilson

Robert B. Wilson
Born	(1937-05-16) May 16, 1937 (age 79) Geneva, Nebraska
Nationality	American
Fields	Economist Management science
Institutions	Stanford University (since 1964) Harvard Law School
Alma mater	Harvard University
Doctoral advisor	Howard Raiffa
Doctoral students	Claude d'Aspremont Lynden Bengt R. Holmström Paul Milgrom Jean-Pierre Ponssard Robert W. Rosenthal Alvin E. Roth Yuliy Sannikov Muhamet Yildiz
Known for	Game theory in industrial organization sequential quadratic programming
Notable awards	Golden Goose Award (2014) BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2015) CME Group-MSRI prize (2017)

Golden Goose Award (2014) BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2015)

Robert Butler "Bob" Wilson, Jr. (born May 16, 1937) is an American economist and the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Emeritus at Stanford University. He is known for his contributions to management science and business economics. His doctoral thesis introduced sequential quadratic programming, which became a leading iterative method for nonlinear programming. With other mathematical economists at the Stanford Business School, he helped to reformulate the economics of industrial organization and organization theory using non-cooperative game theory. His research on nonlinear pricing has influenced policies for large firms, particularly in the energy industry, especially electricity.

Wilson was born on May 16, 1937 in Nebraska. He graduated from a high school in Nebraska and earned a full ride scholarship to Harvard University. He received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1959. He then completed his M.B.A. in 1961 and his D.B.A. in 1963 from the Harvard Business School. He worked at the University of California, Los Angeles for a very brief time and then joined the faculty at Stanford University. He has been on the faculty of the Stanford Business School since 1964. He was also an affiliated faculty member of Harvard Law School from 1993 to 2001.