R. Duncan Luce


Robert Duncan Luce was an American mathematician and social scientist, and one of the most preeminent figures in the field of mathematical psychology. At the end of his life, he held the position of Distinguished Research Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of California, Irvine.

Education and career

Luce received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1945, and PhD in Mathematics from the same university in 1950 under Irvin S. Cohen with thesis On Semigroups.
He began his professorial career at Columbia University in 1954, where he was an assistant professor in mathematical statistics and sociology. Following a lecturership at Harvard University from 1957 to 1959, he became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1959, and was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Professorship of Psychology in 1968. After visiting the Institute 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 director of UCI's Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences.

Contributions

Contributions for which Luce is known include formulating Luce's choice axiom formalizing the principle that additional options should not affect the probability of selecting one item over another, defining semiorders, introducing graph-theoretic methods into the social sciences, and coining the term "clique" for a complete subgraph in graph theory.

Recognition

In 1966, Luce was elected to the American [Academy of Arts and Sciences]. Luce was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1972 for his work on fundamental measurement, utility theory, global psychophysics, and mathematical behavioral sciences. He received the 2003 National Medal of Science in behavioral and social science for his contributions to the field of mathematical psychology. In 2004, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Books by Luce

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Archival collections

Other

Category:1925 births
Category:2012 deaths
Category:American social scientists
Category:American cognitive scientists
Category:American game theorists
Category:Mathematical psychologists
Category:National Medal of Science laureates
Category:Fellows of the Econometric Society
Category:Fellows of the Society of Experimental Psychologists
Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Category:Members of [the United States National Academy of Sciences]
Category:University of California, Irvine faculty
Category:MIT [School of Engineering alumni]
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:Harvard University faculty
Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty
Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society
Category:APA [Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology recipients]