Robert B. Wilson

Robert B. Wilson

Robert Butler Wilson, Jr. is an American economist and the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Emeritus at Stanford University. He was jointly awarded the 2020 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, together with his Stanford colleague and former student Paul R. Milgrom. His doctoral thesis introduced sequential quadratic programming, which became a leading iterative method for nonlinear programming.

About Robert B. Wilson in brief

Summary Robert B. WilsonRobert Butler Wilson, Jr. is an American economist and the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Emeritus at Stanford University. He was jointly awarded the 2020 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, together with his Stanford colleague and former student Paul R. Milgrom. Two more of his students, Alvin E. Roth and Bengt Holmström, are also Nobel Laureates in their own right. Wilson is known for his contributions to management science and business economics. His doctoral thesis introduced sequential quadratic programming, which became a leading iterative method for nonlinear programming.

His research on nonlinear pricing has influenced policies for large firms, particularly in the energy industry, especially electricity. Wilson’s 1968 Econometrica paper The Theory of the Syndicates influenced a whole generation of economics, finance, and accounting students. He has been a major contributor to auction designs and competitive bidding strategies in the oil, communication, and power industries. His work on pricing of priority service for electric power has been implemented in the utility industry.