Oskar Morgenstern

Oskar Morgenstern (24 January 1902 to 26 July 1977) was a German-born economist who, in collaboration with the mathematician John von Neumann, is credited with founding the field of game theory and its application to the social sciences and strategic decision-making. He also made significant contributions to decision theory, including the von Neumann-Morgenstern utility theorem, and served as a consultant or co-founder for companies such as the Market Research Corporation of America and the original Mathematica Inc. He was born in Görlitz in the Prussian Province of Silesia, grew up in Vienna, took a doctorate in political science at the University of Vienna in 1925, and became a professor of economics there in 1928. In 1935 a colleague, Eduard Čech, directed him to von Neumann's 1928 article on the theory of parlour games. He held the Vienna post until visiting Princeton University in 1938.