Following the death of Nobel Prize-winning economist John Nash earlier this year, the next lunchtime seminar will include reflections on Nash’s work. Date: Thursday 1 October 2015 Time: 12.15 for 12.30 - 1.30 pm Venue: Reserve Bank of Australia, Ground Floor, 65 Martin Place, Sydney Presenter: Professor John Wooders, University of Technology Abstract:  John Nash made path-breaking contributions to both cooperative and non-cooperative game theory that have revolutionized modern economics, and have also had an important impact in diverse fields such as computer science, political science, sociology, and biology.  This talk gives a non-technical introduction to Nash’s contributions and discusses the empirical validity of the notion of Nash equilibrium, based on data both from laboratory experiments and the real world. Bio: John Wooders is a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Technology Sydney.  He is an associate editor of the Journal of Public Economic Theory, Economics Letters, the International Game Theory Review, the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, and the Journal of Dynamics and Games.  Wooders has published in the top international journals, including Econometrica, the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Theory, and as well as numerous papers in Games and Economic Behavior and other leading journals.  A distinctive feature of his work is that it combines novel theory with the innovative use of data from the field and the laboratory to understand and predict real-world behaviour.  His celebrated paper “Minimax Play at Wimbledon” (American Economic Review), for example, pioneered the use of data from the field – in this case professional tennis – to test game theory.  Wooders’ research has been supported by significant grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Australian research Council, and the Fundación BBVA (Spain).