John Forbes Nash

John Forbes Nash Jr. (born June 13, 1928) is an American mathematician who works in game theory and differential geometry. He shared the 1994 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences with two other game theorists, Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi.

Personal life

John Nash was born in the small Appalachian town of Bluefield, West Virginia, the son of John Nash Sr., an electrical engineer, and Virginia Martin, a teacher. By the time he was about twelve years old he was showing great interest in carrying out scientific experiments in his room at home.

Related Topics:
Appalachia - Bluefield, West Virginia

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Martha, his sister, seems to have been a remarkably normal child while Johnny seemed different from other children. She wrote later in life, "Johnny was always different. knew he was different. And they knew he was bright. He always wanted to do things his way. Mother insisted I do things for him, that I include him in my friendships. ... but I wasn't too keen on showing off my somewhat odd brother".

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At Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he met Alicia Lopez-Harrison de Lardé, a math student from El Salvador, whom he married in February 1957. Their son, John Charles Martin (b. 1959), remained nameless for a year because Alicia, having just committed Nash to a mental hospital, felt that he should have a say in what to name the baby. John became a mathematician, but, like his father, he was diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic. Nash had another son, John David (b. June 19, 1953), by Eleanor Stier, but refused to have anything to do with them. Sylvia Nasar, Nash's biographer, cites evidence that Nash was bisexual. However, John and Alicia denied such on 60 Minutes in 2002.

Related Topics:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - El Salvador - 1957 - John Charles Martin - June 19 - 1953 - 60 Minutes - 2002

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Although she divorced him in 1963, Alicia took him back in 1970. According to Sylvia Nasar's biography of Nash, Alicia referred to him as her "boarder" and they lived "like two distantly related individuals under one roof" until he won the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in 1994, when they renewed their relationship. They remarried on June 1, 2001.

Related Topics:
1963 - 1970 - Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences - 1994 - June 1 - 2001

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Schizophrenia

In 1958, Nash began to show the first signs of his mental illness. He became paranoid and was admitted into the McLean Hospital, April-May 1959, where he was diagnosed with 'paranoid schizophrenia'. After a problematic stay in Paris and Geneva, Nash returned to Princeton in 1960. He remained in and out of mental hospitals until 1970, undergoing various treatments including insulin (a.k.a. hypoglycemic) coma therapy.

Related Topics:
1958 - McLean Hospital - 1959 - Paranoid - Schizophrenia - Paris - Geneva - 1960 - 1970 - Insulin - Hypoglycemic - Coma - Therapy

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Some of his treatments may have worsened his condition because his doctors did not realize the centrality of work and community to curing mental illness, and the most successful "treatment" seems to have been administrative decisions at Princeton's mathematics department and computer center to allow Nash to use university facilities for his researches during this period, although the researches were initially delusional.

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In student and on-campus legend, Nash became "The Phantom of Fine Hall" (Fine Hall is Princeton's mathematics center), a shadowy figure who would scribble arcane equations on blackboards in the middle of the night. The legend appears in a work of fiction based on Princeton life, "The Mind-Body Problem", by Rebecca Goldstein.

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However, encouraged by his wife Alicia, Nash persisted in working in a communitarian setting where his eccentricities were unremarked and developed, among other interests, an interest in the calculation of exact values of large numbers, researches which drove him to Princeton's Information Centers, where he developed computer programs (of high quality) for his work. Here he had more contact with Princetonians and also, in the late 1980s, began to use electronic mail to gradually link with working mathematicians who realized that he was "John Nash" and his new work had value.

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They formed part of the nucleus of a group that contacted the Bank of Sweden's Nobel award committee and was able to vouch for Nash's ability to receive the award in recognition of his early work.

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The 1990s brought a return of his genius, and Nash has taken care to manage the symptoms of his mental illness. He is still hoping to score substantial scientific results. His recent work involves some very interesting ventures in advanced game theory including partial agency which show that as in early career, he prefers to select his own path and problems.

Related Topics:
1990s - Genius

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His son, John Charles Martin Nash, born in 1959, became a mathematician like his father, but he was also diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

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