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2000 JPBM Communications Award, Volume 47, Number 5

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2000 JPBM Communications Award, Volume 47, Number 5 2000 JPBM Communications Award The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics the past decade, at the New York Times. She is now (JPBM) Communications Award was es- working on her second book, about great twenti- tablished in 1988 to reward and eth-century economic thinkers, which picks up encourage those who, on a sustained where Robert Heilbroner’s classic, The Worldly basis, bring accurate mathematical in- Philosophers, leaves off and which will be pub- formation to nonmathematical audi- lished by Simon & Schuster in 2003. ences. This lifetime award recognizes A Beautiful Mind, the biography of John Nash, a significant contribution or accumu- was Nasar’s first book. It grew out of her New York lated contributions to public under- Times article “The Lost Years of the Nobel Laure- Sylvia Nasar standing of mathematics. ate”, written right after Nash won the Nobel Prize At the Joint Mathematics Meetings in 1994. A Beautiful Mind won the 1998 National in Washington, DC, in January 2000, the 2000 JPBM Book Critic’s prize for biography and many other Communications Award was presented to SYLVIA NASAR. What follows is the award citation, a bio- accolades. graphical sketch, and the recipient’s response to receiving the award. Response Citation When John Forbes Nash Jr. won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1994, “the most remarkable mathe- The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics presents matician of the second half century” was known its 2000 Communications Award to Sylvia Nasar for A Beautiful Mind, her biography of John Forbes around Princeton as “The Phantom of Fine Hall”. Nash Jr. Based on extensive research, the vivid, He was not affiliated with any university, was not beautifully written account of the life of the trou- a member of the National Academy, was not listed bled mathematical genius provides rare insight in Who’s Who. The “Nash equilibrium”, “Nash into the world of academic research in mathe- bargaining solution”, “Nash embedding”, “Nash- matics. By portraying the mathematical culture at De Giorgi result”, “Nash-Moser theorem”, and other several leading institutions and explaining the sig- of Nash’s contributions from the 1950s had become nificance of John Nash’s contributions in game famous in fields as disparate as geometry and theory, geometry, and analysis, Sylvia Nasar has game theory, but he himself was shrouded in given the general public a glimpse into the world obscurity. Thirty years of devastating mental ill- of mathematical research and an understanding of ness had not only shattered Nash’s life, they had its impact on society. also erased his personal history. Without the loyal Biographical Sketch support of his colleagues in the mathematical com- munity and his wife, Alicia, Nash could not have Sylvia Nasar, who was born in Germany and grew survived those lost years, much less recovered up in the United States and Turkey, was trained as an economist. She studied under William Baumol from his illness and won worldwide acclaim. And and Fritz Machlup at New York University and without their recollections, letters, and pho- subsequently worked with Wassily Leontief, the tographs, I could not have reconstructed Nash’s 1973 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics for profoundly moving and inspiring story. For these his invention of input-output analysis. Nasar has gifts—as well as this wonderful award—I am been writing about economics for many years, first profoundly grateful. at Fortune and U.S. News & World Report, and, in —From JPBM prize announcement 574 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 47, NUMBER 5.
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