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Melvin Dresher

Polish-American mathematician (1911-1992)

Melvin Dresher
Melvin Dresher, early 1940s
Born	(1911-03-13)March 13, 1911 Krasnystaw, Poland
Died	June 4, 1992(1992-06-04) (aged 81) Kern, California, US
Education	Lehigh University Yale University
Known for	Prisoner's dilemma
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	Michigan State College War Production Board National Defense Research Committee Catholic University of America RAND
Doctoral advisor	Øystein Ore

Melvin Dresher (born Dreszer; March 13, 1911 – June 4, 1992) was a Polish-born American mathematician, notable for developing, with Merrill Flood, the game theoretical model of cooperation and conflict known as the Prisoner's dilemma while at RAND in 1950 (Albert W. Tucker gave the game its prison-sentence interpretation, and thus the name by which it is known today).^[1][2]

Dresher came to the United States in 1923. He obtained his B.S. from Lehigh University in 1933 and his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1937 under the supervision of Øystein Ore; the title of his dissertation was "Multi-Groups: A Generalisation of the Notion of Group." Dresher worked as instructor of mathematics, Michigan State College, 1938–1941; statistician, War Production Board, 1941–1944; mathematical physicist, National Defense Research Committee, 1944–1946; professor of mathematics, Catholic University of America, 1946–1947; research mathematician, RAND, from 1948.

Dresher was the author of several RAND research papers on game theory, and his widely acclaimed The Mathematics of Games of Strategy: Theory and Applications (originally published in 1961 as Games of Strategy: Theory and Applications) continues to be read today. Dresher's research has been referred to and discussed in a variety of published books, including Prisoner's DilemmabyWilliam Poundstone and A Beautiful MindbySylvia Nasar.^[3]

Dresher married Martha Whitaker (m. 1937) and is survived by his daughter Olivia Dresher (b. 1945)^[4] and son Paul Dresher (b. 1951).

• Bohnenblust, H.; Dresher, Melvin; Girshick, M.; Harris, Theodore; Helmer-Hirschberg, Olaf; McKinsey, J.; Shapley, Lloyd; Snow, R. (1948). Mathematical Theory of Zero-Sum Two-Person Games with a Finite Number or a Continuum of Strategies. RAND Corporation. doi:10.7249/r115.
• Berge, Claude; Dresher, Melvin, eds. (1970). Contributions to the theory of games. 3: C. Berge ... Ed. by M. Dresher. Annals of mathematics studies (4. print ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Pr. ISBN 978-0-691-07936-3.
• Dresher, Melvin (1981). The mathematics of games of strategy: theory and applications (unabridged republ. of the [ed.] ... Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1961 ed.). New York: Dover. ISBN 978-0-486-64216-1.
• Dresher, M.; Aumann, R. J., eds. (1985). Advances in game theory. Annals of mathematics studies (Repr. from the hardcover ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-691-07902-8.
• Dresher, Melvin (2007). Games of strategy: theory and applications (New RAND ed.). Santa Monica, Calif: RAND Corp. ISBN 978-0-8330-4225-5.

• Obituary, July 2, 1992 issue of the Palisadian-Post newspaper (Pacific Palisades, California).
• "In Remembrance", July 9, 1992 issue of RAND Items (a biweekly publication for employees of RAND).