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Robert Aumann

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Robert John Aumann is a world-renowned mathematician and economist.

Flickr - Government Press Office (GPO) - Nobel Laureate Yisrael Aumann
Flickr - Government Press Office (GPO) - Nobel Laureate Yisrael Aumann

His work focuses on how individuals interact within complex systems. He specializes in game theory, which is the mathematical study of strategic decision-making. In this field, players make choices that affect not only themselves but also others. By using math, Aumann explores how people cooperate or clash. His research helps us understand the logic behind human behavior in social and political settings.

Aumann's primary contribution lies in the study of repeated games. In a single game, players make a one-time choice. In a repeated game, players encounter the same situation many times over. This repetition changes how people act because they must consider future consequences. Aumann also defined the concept of correlated equilibrium. This is a type of equilibrium in non-cooperative games. It is more flexible than the classical Nash equilibrium. This concept allows for coordination between players through shared signals.

Beyond equilibrium, Aumann introduced a formal account of common knowledge. Common knowledge occurs when everyone knows a fact, and everyone knows that everyone else knows it. This concept is vital for understanding how information spreads in a group. He also collaborated with Lloyd Shapley to develop the Aumann–Shapley value. This mathematical tool helps distribute the total gains of a cooperative game among its participants. These diverse ideas form a toolkit for analyzing complex human interactions.

Aumann's journey began in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He was born on June 8, 1930. His family fled to the United States in 1938. They left just two weeks before the Kristallnacht pogrom. Aumann attended the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School in New York City. He earned his B.S. in mathematics from the City College of New York in 1950. He later attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There, he earned an M.S. in 1952 and a Ph.D. in 1955. His doctoral dissertation focused on knot theory, specifically the asphericity of alternating linkages.

In 1956, Aumann joined the faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has since held visiting positions at many prestigious institutions. These include Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. He also visited the Universite Catholique de Louvain. Aumann is a founding member of the Stony Brook Center for Game Theory. His academic excellence led to many honors. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. In 2005, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He shared this award with Thomas Schelling for their work on conflict and cooperation.

Aumann has applied game theory to unexpected areas, such as ancient texts. He and Maschler used math to analyze Talmudic dilemmas. They solved a mystery regarding the "division problem." This problem involved the rationale for dividing a late husband's heritage among three wives. The solution depended on the value of the heritage compared to its original worth. Aumann also explored the controversial topic of Bible codes. In 1996, he led a committee to examine reported encoded texts. The committee performed two tests, but both failed to confirm the existence of the codes. Aumann concluded that the existence of such codes is highly improbable.

His mathematical insights also extend to global politics and security. In his Nobel lecture, "War and Peace," he argued that war is not irrational. He suggested that war must be studied scientifically to be understood and conquered. Aumann noted that studying repeated games emphasizes future outcomes over the immediate "now." He also discussed how certain strategic threats can prevent war. His views on Israeli security are informed by his mathematical research. He has used game theory to argue against specific territorial policies. These applications show that math is a powerful tool for analyzing real-world conflicts.

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