J.C.C. McKinsey | |
---|---|
Born | 30 April 1908 |
Died | October 26, 1953 | (aged 45)
Nationality | American |
Other names | Chen McKinsey [1]: p. 141 |
Alma mater | New York University, University of California |
Known for | Game theory |
Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship |
Scientific career | |
Fields |
Mathematical logic Game theory |
Institutions | RAND Corporation, Stanford University |
Thesis | On Boolean functions of many variables |
Doctoral advisor | Benjamin Abram Bernstein |
Doctoral students | Jean Rubin |
John Charles Chenoweth McKinsey (30 April 1908 – 26 October 1953), usually cited as J. C. C. McKinsey, was an American mathematician known for his work on game theory and mathematical logic, [2] particularly, modal logic. [3]
McKinsey received B.S. and M.S. degrees from New York University and a Ph.D. degree in 1936 from the University of California, Berkeley. [4] He was a Blumenthal Research Fellow at New York University from 1936 to 1937 and a Guggenheim Fellow from 1942 to 1943. [2] [5] He also taught at Montana State College, and in Nevada, then Oklahoma, and in 1947 he went "to a research group at Douglas Aircraft Corporation" that later became the RAND Corporation. [1]: p. 161
McKinsey worked at RAND until he was fired in 1951. The FBI considered him a security risk because he was a homosexual, in spite of the fact that he was an open homosexual who had been in a committed relationship for years. He complained to his superior "How can anyone threaten me with disclosure when everybody already knows?" [6]
From 1951 he taught at Stanford University, where he was later appointed a Full Professor in the Department of Philosophy, [2] where he worked with Patrick Suppes on the axiomatic foundations of classical mechanics. [1]: p. 232 He committed suicide [6] at his home in Palo Alto in 1953. [2]