PRIZES AND HONOURS

March 28, 2024
November 3, 2014 at 6:00 p.m.
The Fields Institute, 222 College St.

MATHEMATICS AND SOCIETY
The Nathan and Beatrice Keyfitz Lectures in Mathematics and the Social Sciences


Paul Milgrom
Shirley R. and Leonard W. Ely, Jr. Professor in Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University

 

Reallocating Radio Spectrum: A Hard Resource Allocation Problem

Reallocating a large chunk of radio spectrum bandwidth from broadcast television use to mobile broadband in the United States and Canada can create tens of billions of dollars of economic value, but will require the solution of more than a million large-scale graph coloring problems. Although each of these problems is NP-hard, the complications for individual broadcasters must be kept modest. Computer science and game theory have come together to enable an elegant, effective solution.

Bio: Paul Robert Milgrom is an American economist. He is the Shirley and Leonard Ely Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, a position he has held since 1987. Professor Milgrom is an expert in game theory, specifically auction theory and pricing strategies. He is the co-creator of the no-trade theorem with Nancy Stokey. He is the co-founder of several companies, the most recent of which, Auctionomics, provides software and services that create efficient markets for complex commercial auctions and exchanges.


The Nathan and Beatrice Keyfitz Lectures are of interest to the university community as well as to individuals involved in the social and political sciences, the arts and the humanities. The purpose of the series is both to inform the public and to encourage dialogue between mathematical and social scientists. All lectures are open to the public and everyone is welcome.

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