John Forbes Nash, Jr.
American mathematician
Died when: 86 years 344 days (1043 months)Star Sign: Gemini
John Forbes Nash Jr. (June 13, 1928 – May 23, 2015) was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, real algebraic geometry, differential geometry, and partial differential equations.
Nash and fellow game theorists John Harsanyi and Reinhard Selten were awarded the 1994 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (popularly known as the Nobel Prize in Economics).
In 2015, he and Louis Nirenberg were awarded the Abel Prize for their contributions to the field of partial differential equations.
As a graduate student in the Mathematics Department at Princeton University, Nash introduced a number of concepts (including Nash equilibrium and the Nash bargaining solution) which are now considered central to game theory and its applications in various sciences.
In the 1950s, Nash discovered and proved the Nash embedding theorems by solving a system of nonlinear partial differential equations arising in Riemannian geometry.
This work, also introducing a preliminary form of the Nash–Moser theorem, was later recognized by the American Mathematical Society with the Leroy P.
Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research.Ennio De Giorgi and Nash found, with separate methods, a body of results paving the way for a systematic understanding of elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations.
Their De Giorgi–Nash theorem on the smoothness of solutions of such equations resolved Hilbert's nineteenth problem on regularity in the calculus of variations, which had been a well-known open problem for almost sixty years.
In 1959, Nash began showing clear signs of mental illness, and spent several years at psychiatric hospitals being treated for schizophrenia.
After 1970, his condition slowly improved, allowing him to return to academic work by the mid-1980s.His struggles with his illness and his recovery became the basis for Sylvia Nasar's biographical book A Beautiful Mind in 1998, as well as a film of the same name directed by Ron Howard, in which Nash was portrayed by New Zealand Australian actor Russell Crowe.
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