<great brains>

Hungarian-born mathematician John von Neumann can be linked to the development of the A-bomb and the invention of the digital computer, but he will be remembered most as the father game theory (a term he coined in The Theory of Games and Economic Behaivior[1944, with Oskar Morganstern]). Von Neumann's interpretation of life as a game was a bust in economics, but the application of game theory to other areas proved usefull. The RAND Corporation employed von Neumann to apply his "game theory" to Cold War Strategy after World War II. During his stay at RAND, he developed the game known as Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). This game, which greatly resembles "Prisoner's Dilemma," may be responsible for the survival of the earth.

John Nash
(1928--)

Born in Bluefield, Virgina, John F. Nash attended Carnegie-Mellon University (then Carnegie Institute of Technology). Nash's doctoral thesis, "Noncooperative Games," was published in the early 1950s. It is said to have established the mathematical foundations for game theory.

Emile Borel
(1871-1956)

Borel was born in Saint Affrique, France. He studied and taught at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. Aside from mathematics, Borel was active in politics, scientific popularization, and journalism. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies (1924-36) as well as minister for the navy. His mathematical work mainly centered around analysis, measure theory, and probability.

Oskar Morganstern
(1902-1977)

Economist Oskar Morganstern was born in Silesia, Germany. He belonged to "Vienna Circle," a grouped which consisted of primarily philosophers and mathematicians. Morganstern emigrated to the United States in 1938 when Nazis occupied Vienna. He then proceeded to join the faculty of Princeton University, where he remained for 32 years, until 1970. Morganstern's game-theory approach to economics enabled him to get along well with John von Neumann. Together, in 1944, they wrote The Theory of Games and Economic Behaivior.