Lloyd Shapley Centennial
Lloyd Shapley was one of the founding giants of game theory. His "intellectual life and career...was among the most fertile of the 20th century," wrote Lloyd's co-winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics Alvin Roth. Welcome to a new part of the Harlow Shapley site, LLOYD, launched for his Centennial. (His dates are June 2, 1923 - March 12, 2016.) Enjoy an easy-access visual and video guide to his WORK, his favorite GAME Kriegspiel, personal STORIES and his four PRIZES.
The Work
THE WORK page offers quick access to 8 of Lloyd’s main contributions to game theory. You’ll find a brief summary and a graphic “flash card” of Lloyd’s equations for each one. Use the pdf “Evolution of Lloyd Shapley’s Game Theory in 8 steps” with fuller descriptions, a brief bibliography, and links to few of the best references. These were prepared by Dr. Bruce E. Krell, an applied mathematician who was at RAND with Lloyd. Krell is also an avid Kriegspiel player! See THE GAME.
Anyone, especially students and fans of applied math or game theory, can learn from THE WORK page’s unusual synopsis of Lloyd Shapley’s work. Remember: these steps launched whole literatures. His equations about “players,” “coalitions,” “outcomes,” etc. are widely applied in economic and social policy and democratic governance.
To THE Work Page >>
Clockwise from upper left: John von Neumann, Lloyd Shapley, David Gale, Alvin Roth. Photo credits on inside pages.
Kriegspiel being played at RAND in the 1950s. (Lloyd Shapley not shown) Photo: The RAND Corporation
The GAme
Lloyd was a fiendish Kriegspeil player. He was a regular at the Rand Math Division lunchtime games and “almost unbeatable,”
Kriegspiel is a dazzling form of blind chess played sometimes addictively by math-minded people for whom regular chess is boring.
On THE GAME page, you can start learning Kriegspiel from a video made by Dr. Bruce Krell exclusively for Lloyd’s Centennial.
TO THE GAME Page >>
Stories
Do mathematicians only live in their heads and equations? The STORIES page describes the quirky, humorous, clever Lloyd in anecdotes from family, former students and colleagues. Lloyd and his wife Marian appear. So do John von Neumann, Harlow Shapley, Martin Shubik, John F. Nash Jr. and others. Deborah Shapley and Lloyd’s son Peter thank everyone for their contributions.
You will find answers to questions you never thought to ask: What is Hell’s Bells? Whom did Lloyd help? What happened to his PhD thesis? And the guessing game played by Lloyd’s students at UCLA: What else is in his desk drawer?
To Stories Page >>
No Marriage Problem. Lloyd and Marian with Harlow at 1956 wedding of Alan and Kay Shapley. Lloyd & Marian married in August 1955. Photo: Shapley Collection
Lloyd Shapley, 89, shows his Nobel medal to his sons and grandsons just after the ceremony December 10, 2012. More on this photo on Prizes page.
ThE Prizes
The Nobel Prize in Economics in 2012 went to Lloyd Shapley and Alvin E. Roth “for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design.” Lloyd’s part of the award was for his 1962 paper with David Gale proposing the deferred acceptance algorithm. It is often called as the marriage problem paper because it describes the matching of couples. See THE WORK.
In 2013 the Golden Goose Award showcased the Gale and Shapley paper and Roth’s life-saving applications to members of Congress and opinion leaders. See Video on THE PRIZES page. The von Neumann Theory Prize in 1981 recognized the full range of Lloyd’s work to that time. And, way back before he graduated from Harvard, in World War Two Lloyd was sent to the China theater. He was awarded the Bronze Star for breaking the Soviet weather code.
The life of a “pure” mathematician can bring rewards!