The Mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr.: A Short Biography

By Doug West

At first glance, John Forbes Nash Jr. seemed to have it all: a Ph.D. from Princeton, a beautiful wife, and a fantastic job teaching mathematics at MIT. He had no idea that at the age of thirty-one, his entire life would fall apart, and it would take decades of hospitalization before his brilliant self would reemerge from the hell of schizophrenia – not unlike a butterfly trapped too long in a cocoon. After a long bout of relative obscurity, mental illness, and poverty, Nash was ultimately awarded – seemingly out of the blue – the Nobel Prize in Economics. At some point during his illness, the world had forgotten about John Nash the man, but that didn’t stop people from remembering all that he’d accomplished in his youth. His work has shaped many areas of industry and academia, and has helped solve many important problems. Ultimately, John Nash pushed past the constraints of his brilliance and madness, and found redemption.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Doug West
• Release date: Aug 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370816286

Doug West

Doug West is a retired engineer, small business owner, and an experienced non-fiction writer with several books to his credit. His writing interests are general, with expertise in science, history, biographies, numismatics, and “How to” topics. Doug has a B.S. in Physics from the Missouri School of Science and Technology and a Ph.D. in General Engineering from Oklahoma State University. He lives with his wife and little dog “Millie” near Kansas City, Missouri.

Book preview

The Mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. – A Short Biography

By Doug West, Ph.D.

The Mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. – A Short Biography

Copyright © 2016 Doug West

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author. Reviewers may quote brief passages in reviews.

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Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 – Early Life and Education

Chapter 2 – Princeton University

Chapter 3 – A Rising Mathematical Star

Chapter 4 – A Bumpy Personal Life

Chapter 5 – Battle with Mental Illness

Chapter 6 – Nobel Prize

Chapter 7 – Later Life

Chronology

Acknowledgements

Further Reading

Reference Articles

About the Author

Preface

Welcome to the book The Mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. – A Short Biography. This book is part of the 30-Minute Book Series and, as the name of the series implies, this book will take about 30 minutes to read if you are an average reader, or a little longer if you are listening to the book in audio format. Since this book is not meant to be an all-encompassing biography of John Nash Jr., you may want to know more about this great man and his accomplishments. To help you with this, there are several good references listed at the end of the text. Thank you for purchasing this book, and I hope you enjoy your time reading about John Nash Jr.

Doug West

August 2016

Introduction

By the age of thirty, John Forbes Nash Jr. seemed to have it all: a Ph.D. from Princeton, a beautiful wife, and Fortune magazine had just named him as one of the bright young stars in mathematics. In fact, he was about to be promoted to a full professor at MIT.