Nobel Prize Winner and Mathematician John F. Nash, Jr. Dies in Car Crash
Nobel Prize winner and mathematician, John F. Nash, Jr. died in a car crash last Saturday. He was 86. His wife, Alice Nash, also died in the same car crash.
The couple was riding a taxi cab along the New Jersey Turnpike when the taxi driver lost control, hit the guard rail and another vehicle. The couple had just came back from a recent trip to Norway where Dr. Nash was given the Abel Prize by the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, an award he shared with fellow mathematician Louis Nirenberg.
Police reports, according to The New York Times, said that the couple were thrown out of the vehicle and were likely not wearing their seat belts. They were pronounced dead on the scene.
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Dr. Nash is known for his work in game theory which "provided a conceptually simple but powerful mathematical tool for analyzing a wide range of competitive situations, from corporate rivalries to legislative decision making." Because of this contribution of his, he was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize for Economics, together with economists John C. Harsanyi and Reinhard Selten.
His intellectual and personal life, including his struggle with mental illness, was chronicled by Sylvia Nasar in the biographical novel "A Beautiful Mind," which became the basis for the movie of the same title, which was released in 2001. The movie was starred in by Russell Crowe as Dr. Nash and Jennifer Connelly as Alicia Nash. The movie won Best Picture at the Oscars.
Hollywood celebrities including Ron Howard, the film's director and Russell Crowe expressed their sadness about Nash's and his wife's death. According to a report in Variety, Howard tweeted, "RIP Brilliant #NobelPrize winning John Nash & his remarkable wife Alicia. It was an honor telling part of their story. #ABeautifulMind."
He is survived by two sons, John David Stier and John Charles Martin Nash, as well as a sister, Martha Nash Legg.
