Robert Duncan Luce | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1925-05-16)May 16, 1925 |
| Died | August 11, 2012(2012-08-11) (aged 87) |
| Alma mater | MIT (B.S) (1945) MIT (PhD) (1950) |
| Known for | Luce's choice axiom Clique Social dynamics Semiorder Theory of conjoint measurement |
| Awards | National Medal of Science (2003) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematical psychology Mathematician Cognitive science |
| Institutions | Columbia University Harvard University University of Pennsylvania University of California, Irvine |
| Doctoral advisor | Irvin Cohen |
Robert Duncan Luce (May 16, 1925 – August 11, 2012)[1] was an American mathematician and social scientist, and one of the most preeminent figures in the field ofmathematical psychology. At the end of his life, he held the position ofDistinguished Research Professor ofCognitive Science at theUniversity of California, Irvine.[2]
Luce received aBachelor of Science degree inAeronautical Engineering from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology in 1945, andPhD inMathematics from the same university in 1950 underIrvin S. Cohen[3] with thesisOn Semigroups.
He began his professorial career atColumbia University in 1954, where he was an assistant professor in mathematical statistics and sociology. Following a lecturership atHarvard University from 1957 to 1959, he became a professor at theUniversity of Pennsylvania in 1959, and was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Professorship of Psychology in 1968. After visiting theInstitute for Advanced Study beginning in 1969, he joined the UC Irvine faculty in 1972, but returned to Harvard in 1976 as Alfred North Whitehead Professor of Psychology and then later as Victor S. Thomas Professor of Psychology. In 1988 Luce rejoined the UC Irvine faculty as Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Sciences and (from 1988 to 1998) director of UCI's Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences.[4]
Contributions for which Luce is known include formulatingLuce's choice axiom formalizing the principle that additional options should not affect the probability of selecting one item over another, definingsemiorders, introducinggraph-theoretic methods into the social sciences, and coining the term "clique" for a complete subgraph in graph theory.[5][6]
In 1966, Luce was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.[7] Luce was elected to theNational Academy of Sciences in 1972 for his work on fundamental measurement, utility theory, globalpsychophysics, and mathematical behavioral sciences. He received the 2003National Medal of Science in behavioral and social science for his contributions to the field of mathematical psychology.[8] In 2004, he was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society.[9]
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