Announcing the 2025 Ramsey Medal Winner: Professor Emeritus Robert F. Nau
On behalf of the Decision Analysis Society and the Ramsey Medal Committee, we are delighted to announce that Professor Emeritus Robert F. Nau of Duke University has been awarded the 2025 Frank P. Ramsey Medal for his distinguished contributions to the field of decision analysis.
Professor Nau is widely recognized for his foundational research in economic decision theory and subjective probability, especially his work connecting decision-making under uncertainty with competitive markets and game theory. His many scholarly contributions include influential publications on preferences and utility maximization, scoring rules, imprecise probabilities, and the integration of option pricing theory with decision analysis. His landmark paper "Valuing Risky Projects: Option Pricing Theory and Decision Analysis" (with Jim Smith) earned the DAS Publication Award in 1997 and continues to be a reference point in the field.
Bob has also provided decades of dedicated service to the decision analysis community. He served as a Council Member (1992–1994), Secretary/Treasurer (1994–1998), and Webmaster for the Society during its formative years. He has held editorial positions at Management Science, Operations Research, and Theory and Decision, including serving as Departmental Editor for the Decision Analysis area at Management Science from 1996 to 1998. Beyond these roles, his volunteer contributions have ranged from organizing conferences and mentoring students to creating the current DAS logo.
His impact on education and practice is equally profound. Professor Nau has long championed open-access teaching tools and resources, such as RegressIt, a free Excel add-in for regression analysis, along with comprehensive online tools for time series, statistics, and choice theory. His work has shaped the thinking of students and scholars around the globe.
We are also pleased to note that Professor Nau recently published his long-awaited book, Arbitrage and Rational Decisions (Chapman and Hall, 2025), which brings together decades of his research and teaching. The book is freely accessible and can be found here:
https://people.duke.edu/~rnau/book/Arbitrage_and_Rational_Decisions.htm
Professor Nau will offer remarks during the DAS Award Session at the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 27, 2025.
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About the Award
The Frank P. Ramsey Medal is the highest honor awarded by the Decision Analysis Society. It recognizes individuals for distinguished contributions to the field of decision analysis. The medal commemorates Frank P. Ramsey, whose seminal 1926 essay "Truth and Probability" laid the foundation for modern subjective probability and decision theory.
Please join us in expressing our warmest congratulations to Bob!
The 2025 Ramsey Medal Committee consisted of:
Yael Grushka-Cockayne (Chair, Past President of DAS), Sam Bodily, David Budescu, David Brown, Vicki Bier, and Ahti Salo.
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Yael Grushka-Cockayne
Vice Dean, Darden School of Business
University of Virginia
Charlottesville VA
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