Schelling Receives Nobel Award at Ceremony Dec. 10

Thomas C. Schelling Click here for hi-res image

Ceremonies to award the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics to University of Maryland professor Thomas Schelling were held on Saturday, Dec. 10 in Stockholm, Sweden. The Royal Swedish Academy announced in October that Schelling and Robert Aumann of Hebrew University in Jerusalem would share this year's prize "for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis."

Schelling, distinguished university professor in the Department of Economics and the School of Public Policy, received the prize directly from the King of Sweden at a 90-minute ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall. The ceremony also included the bestowal of the awards in physics, chemistry, medicine and literature.

An on demand video of the ceremony is available on the Nobel Foundation Internet site.

Nobel Lecture
Schelling delivered his Nobel lecture "An Astonishing Sixty Years" in Stockholm on Thursday, Dec. 8 focusing on the "nuclear taboo." In the text of his talk, Schelling asked, "What's so astonishing about the last sixty years? What's the most important event that didn't happen?...There has been no use of nuclear weapons in anger in warfare in over sixty years." The destructive power of nuclear weapons, he maintains, deterred nations from using them. Instead they have become a weapon of persuasion.

"In all these 60 peril-filled years, nuclear weapons were used to deter enemies, not to destroy them. And I think we want the Iranians individually with North Koreans, to learn to think deterrence. Now that my not be comfortable for Americans because who are they going to deter? Us. We're going to be on the deterred end."

Click here for full text of Schelling's remarks
Click here to watch video of his remarks (Real Player required)

University Celebrations
Schelling brought about 18 family members to Stockholm for the ceremonies. A university tribute is being planned for January, after he has returned from Stockholm.

"Tom is one of the foremost social theorists of the last 50 years," says Steven Fetter, dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. "His work is remarkable for its breadth -- from nuclear strategy and control, to crime and racial segregation, to the economics of climate change. In every area, his work has been pathbreaking and has produced penetrating insights."

"Tom Schelling's work has had a revolutionary impact on our thinking and practice," says Edward Montgomery, dean of the University of Maryland School of Behavioral and Social Sciences. "For his entire career he has been at the forefront in advancing our understanding of risk and uncertainty in topics ranging from climate change to arms control."

Schelling's Research
Schelling has published highly influential works in a number of areas including nuclear proliferation and arms control, terrorism, organized crime, energy and environmental policy, climate change and racial segregation. His work on nuclear deterrence helped shape Cold War strategies. He joined the University of Maryland faculty in 1990.

Schelling began his career in 1945, working for the U.S. Bureau of the Budget, and later served as an advisor in the Truman administration. He taught for many years at Yale and Harvard, and has been honored with membership in the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and as a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

"Some people have described me as a game theorist, but this is wrong -- I'm simply a user of game theory," Schelling says.

University of Maryland Nobel Laureates
With this award, Schelling becomes the third University of Maryland Nobel Laureate. William Phillips won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997. Juan Ramon Jimenez won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1956.

Nobel Memorial Prize
Formally known as "The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel," the award is given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences according to the same principles that have guided the Nobel Prizes since 1901.

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