Merrill M. Flood

Merrill Meeks Flood
Merrill Meeks Flood
Born	1908
Died	1991 (aged 82–83)
Nationality	American
Occupation	Mathematician
Known for	Game theory, Prisoner's dilemma

Merrill Meeks Flood (1908 – 1991^[1]) was an American mathematician, notable for developing, with Melvin Dresher, the basis of the game theoretical Prisoner's dilemma model of cooperation and conflict while being at RAND in 1950 (Albert W. Tucker gave the game its prison-sentence interpretation, and thus the name by which it is known today).^[2]

Biography

Flood received an MA in mathematics at the University of Nebraska, and a PhD at Princeton University in 1935 under the supervision of Joseph Wedderburn, for the dissertation Division by Non-singular Matric Polynomials.

In the 1930s he started working at Princeton University, and after the War he worked at the Rand Corporation, Columbia University, the University of Michigan^[3] and the University of California.

In the 1950s Flood was one of the founding members of TIMS and its second President in 1955. End 1950s he was among the first members of the Society for General Systems Research. In 1961, he was elected President of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA), and from 1962 to 1965 he served as Vice President of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. In 1983 he was awarded ORSA's George E. Kimball Medal.

He was elected to the 2002 class of Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.^[4]

Work

Flood is considered a pioneer in the field of management science and operations research, who has been able to apply their techniques to problems on many levels of society. According to Xu (2001) "as early as 1936–1946, he applied innovative systems analysis to public problems and developed cost-benefit analysis in the civilian sector and cost effectiveness analysis in the military sector".^[3]

Traveling salesman problem

In the 1940s Flood publicized the name Traveling salesman problem (TSP) within the mathematical community at mass. Flood publicized the traveling salesman problem in 1948 by presenting it at the RAND Corporation. According to Flood "when I was struggling with the problem in connecting with a school-bus routing study in New Jersey".^[5]

Even more important, as far as common usage goes, Dr. Flood himself claimed to have coined the term "software" in the late 1940s.^[6]

Hitchcock transportation problem

Equally at home in his original field of the mathematics of matrices and in the pragmatic trenches of the industrial engineer, his research addressed an impressive array of operations research problems. His 1953 paper on the Hitchcock transportation problem is often cited, but he also published work on the traveling salesman problem, and an algorithm for solving the von Neumann hide and seek problem.^[3]

Publications

1948, A Game Theoretic Study of the Tactics of Area Defense, RAND Research Memorandum
1949, Illustrative example of application of Koopmans' transportation theory to scheduling military tanker fleet, RAND Research Memorandum.
1951, A Preference Experiment. RAND Research Paper
1951, A Preference Experiment (Series 2, Trial 1).RAND Research Paper
1952, A Preference Experiment (Series 2, Trials 2, 3, 4). RAND Research Paper
1952, Aerial Bombing Tactics : General Considerations (A World War II Study), RAND Research Memorandum.
1952, On Game-Learning Theory and Some Decision-Making Experiments. RAND Research Paper
1952, Preference Experiment. RAND Research Memorandum
1952, Some Group Interaction Models. RAND Research Memorandum

References

^ "20080420 [OCLC]". www.oclc.org. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011.
^ Saul I. Gass (2005). An annotated timeline of operations research: an informal history. p.49.
^ ^a ^b ^c Huixian Xu et al. (2001). "Merrill M. Flood: 2nd President of TIMS (1955) and 10th President of ORSA, 1961–62" Archived September 28, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. Accessed April 15, 2008
^ Fellows: Alphabetical List, Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, archived from the original on May 10, 2019, retrieved October 9, 2019
^ Leonardo Zambito, The Traveling Salesman Problem: A Comprehensive Survey fall 2006. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
^ Flood, Merrill (December 1, 1984). "Letter to the editor" (PDF). Datamation. pp. 15–16.

External links

Biography of Merrill Flood from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
An interview by Albert Tucker (San Francisco on May 14, 1984).

[1] "20080420 [OCLC]". www.oclc.org. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011.

[2] Saul I. Gass (2005). An annotated timeline of operations research: an informal history. p.49.

[INF-3] Huixian Xu et al. (2001). "Merrill M. Flood: 2nd President of TIMS (1955) and 10th President of ORSA, 1961–62" Archived September 28, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. Accessed April 15, 2008

[4] Fellows: Alphabetical List, Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, archived from the original on May 10, 2019, retrieved October 9, 2019

[5] Leonardo Zambito, The Traveling Salesman Problem: A Comprehensive Survey fall 2006. Retrieved April 15, 2008.

[6] Flood, Merrill (December 1, 1984). "Letter to the editor" (PDF). Datamation. pp. 15–16.

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v t e Topics of game theory
Definitions	Congestion game Cooperative game Determinacy Escalation of commitment Extensive-form game First-player and second-player win Game complexity Graphical game Hierarchy of beliefs Information set Normal-form game Preference Sequential game Simultaneous game Simultaneous action selection Solved game Succinct game Mechanism design
Equilibrium concepts	Bayes correlated equilibrium Bayesian Nash equilibrium Berge equilibrium Core Correlated equilibrium Coalition-proof Nash equilibrium Epsilon-equilibrium Evolutionarily stable strategy Gibbs equilibrium Mertens-stable equilibrium Markov perfect equilibrium Nash equilibrium Pareto efficiency Perfect Bayesian equilibrium Proper equilibrium Quantal response equilibrium Quasi-perfect equilibrium Risk dominance Satisfaction equilibrium Self-confirming equilibrium Sequential equilibrium Shapley value Strong Nash equilibrium Subgame perfection Trembling hand equilibrium
Strategies	Appeasement Backward induction Bid shading Collusion Cheap talk De-escalation Deterrence Escalation Forward induction Grim trigger Markov strategy Pairing strategy Dominant strategies Pure strategy Mixed strategy Strategy-stealing argument Tit for tat
Classes of games	Auction Bargaining problem Global game Intransitive game Mean-field game n-player game Perfect information Large Poisson game Potential game Repeated game Screening game Signaling game Strictly determined game Stochastic game Symmetric game Zero-sum game
Games	Go Chess Infinite chess Checkers All-pay auction Prisoner's dilemma Gift-exchange game Optional prisoner's dilemma Traveler's dilemma Coordination game Chicken Centipede game Lewis signaling game Volunteer's dilemma Dollar auction Battle of the sexes Stag hunt Matching pennies Ultimatum game Electronic mail game Rock paper scissors Pirate game Dictator game Public goods game Blotto game War of attrition El Farol Bar problem Fair division Fair cake-cutting Bertrand competition Cournot competition Stackelberg competition Deadlock Diner's dilemma Guess 2/3 of the average Kuhn poker Nash bargaining game Induction puzzles Trust game Princess and monster game Rendezvous problem
Theorems	Aumann's agreement theorem Folk theorem Minimax theorem Nash's theorem Negamax theorem Purification theorem Revelation principle Sprague–Grundy theorem Zermelo's theorem
Key figures	Albert W. Tucker Amos Tversky Antoine Augustin Cournot Ariel Rubinstein Claude Shannon Daniel Kahneman David K. Levine David M. Kreps Donald B. Gillies Drew Fudenberg Eric Maskin Harold W. Kuhn Herbert Simon Hervé Moulin John Conway Jean Tirole Jean-François Mertens Jennifer Tour Chayes John Harsanyi John Maynard Smith John Nash John von Neumann Kenneth Arrow Kenneth Binmore Leonid Hurwicz Lloyd Shapley Melvin Dresher Merrill M. Flood Olga Bondareva Oskar Morgenstern Paul Milgrom Peyton Young Reinhard Selten Robert Axelrod Robert Aumann Robert B. Wilson Roger Myerson Samuel Bowles Suzanne Scotchmer Thomas Schelling William Vickrey
Search optimizations	Alpha–beta pruning Aspiration window Principal variation search max^n algorithm Paranoid algorithm Lazy SMP
Miscellaneous	Bounded rationality Combinatorial game theory Confrontation analysis Coopetition Evolutionary game theory Glossary of game theory List of game theorists List of games in game theory No-win situation Topological game Tragedy of the commons

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