Alvin E. Roth Quotes

My Ph.D. is in operations research. I was interested in making things work better and using mathematics to help do that. So operations research is what I studied as an undergraduate and graduate student.

The science of operations, as derived from mathematics more especially, is a science of itself, and has its own abstract truth and value.

Calculating does not equal mathematics. It's a subsection of it. In years gone by it was the limiting factor, but computers now allow you to make the whole of mathematics more intellectual.

Things like the financial markets - a proper grounding in mathematics could help the common man. I believe that if people are more familiar with mathematical concepts... it can help deal with modern life, which is increasingly complex.

I think putting numbers together into a coherent framework always seemed to me to be what really matters.

There's a mathematical way to get success.

I'm not too worried about that. I am a big believer in modeling.

I view the work I've done related to statistics and economics as, roughly speaking, how to do something without having to do everything.

During the 1950s, I decided, as did many others, that many practical problems were beyond analytic solution and that simulation techniques were required. At RAND, I participated in the building of large logistics simulation models; at General Electric, I helped build models of manufacturing plants.

I'm no mathematician, so I'm stuck with the graphic representations.

Math is a language that you use to describe statistics, but really it's about collecting information and putting it in an order that makes sense.

We are serious as a heart attack about making the world a better place.

Computations are everywhere, once you begin to look at things in a certain way.

My big thesis is that although the world looks messy and chaotic, if you translate it into the world of numbers and shapes, patterns emerge and you start to understand why things are the way they are.

Data helps solve problems.

It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too.

None of us really understands what's going on with all these numbers …. People are getting from A to B and it's not clear how they are getting there....

I think young people can make such an extraordinarily important difference in making this world a better place.

I was always a data guy, not a theorist. Theorists can maintain total purity. The data are always messy.

I am on a mission to help make this world a better place.

When I think about developing solutions, I think about how we can use technology to make a difference.

What is it that the scientist finds useful in being able to relate a positive description of behavior to the solution of a maximizing problem? That is what a good deal of my own early work was about.

Anyone can change the world however they want for the better!

Women are both talented and innovative thinkers and tend to use computer science as a tool to solve larger problems.

I think maths is the root of everything. If we understood every area of math, it would lead to improving our sense of science, physics, engineering, space travel... all those great things. Maths is a backbone for it.