Funnily enough, Nash graduated Princeton in '50, Rumsfeld in '54.

Nash GS '50 testifies as game theory expert in DuPont case

By ELIZABETH LANDAU
Princetonian Staff Writer

University economist John Nash GS '50 used his "beautiful mind" on the witness stand at a hearing last week in Gainesville, Fla., the Associated Press reported.

Nash, winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in economics and subject of the Oscar-winning film "A Beautiful Mind," told the AP he has never testified as a witness before.

Contacted at home, Nash said he did not want to talk about being on the witness stand and declined to comment.

The hearing was for a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by Florida farmers who are suing the DuPont Co. and their former lawyers from a previous case against DuPont involving the fungicide Benlate.

The previous lawsuit, claiming that the fungicide had damaged the growers' crops, was settled for $59 million.

The growers argue that their lawyers covertly entered into a deal with DuPont before the settlement. The lawsuit claims that the lawyers agreed to accept $6.4 million from DuPont in exchange for not filing another Benlate lawsuit.

DuPont paid Nash $500 per hour to present his work on game theory, the mathematical theory that made him famous.

Game-theory research deals with games as mathematical problems, seeking to explain the strategic behavior of individuals, governments and corporations (or rather, abused for the seeking to justify morally questionable behavior of political individuals, governments and corporations). The theory also strives to arrive at the best strategy for handling a specific situation (however ludicrous the outset...)

Another witness for DuPont, Robert Lanzillotti, former dean of business administration at the University of Florida, applied Nash's theory to the lawsuit at hand.

A judge will determine whether Nash's principles are sufficiently accepted in the economics community to be used in trial, according to a Nov. 17 article in The Gainesville Sun.

Nash is not the first University professor to be asked to present research in court. Computer science professor Andrew Appel '81 was an expert witness in an antitrust trial against Microsoft in April 2002. Appel testified against Microsoft, saying that its middleware — software such as web browsers and instant messaging programs — can be removed from the operating system of its computers. Microsoft claimed this software would be virtually irremovable.

Appel said court appearances are time-consuming but can be worthwhile.

"The issue at hand was an important matter of public policy," Appel said. "As a sufficiently interesting matter, it was worth the time."

Appel said he gets calls at least five times a year to testify for patent lawsuits but normally does not agree to go to court.

Trial will begin for the Benlate lawsuit in January.