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December 6, 2007

Game Theory in an Economic Maelstrom

"The way he taught us to think has changed the world."
On October 15, U of M Regents Professor Emeritus Leonid Hurwicz won the Nobel Prize in economics for pioneering work in a branch of game theory known as mechanism design. While highly abstract and mathematical, mechanism design theory has concrete applications in the real world, affecting transactions ranging from auctions to elections.
On December 6, Varadarajan V. Chari, economic adviser for the Federal Reserve Bank, U of M economics professor, and colleague of Dr. Hurwicz, discussed the significance of Hurwicz's groundbreaking theory and the current volatile state of the economy.

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November 1, 2007

A Discovery of Cosmic Proportion

Last August, Larry Rudnick announced the discovery of a gaping hole in space, far larger than any previously found. Astronomers have known for years that the universe contains spaces devoid of normal matter and mysterious “dark matter.� But this newly found hole is one billion light years across! That’s an expanse of 6 billion trillion miles of…nothing. Not to be confused with a black hole, this void is so enormous that current astrophysical theories simply can’t explain it. Rudnick’s recent findings made headlines around the world and raised intriguing questions about the origins of the universe.

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October 4, 2007

Bridges Fall Down

“A bridge in America shouldn’t just fall down.�
The collapse of the I-35W Bridge in August focused national media attention on Minnesota and renewed a decades-old debate over how we finance the interstate highway system in this country.
Listen to University of Minnesota professor, geography department chair, co-director of the new University Metropolitan Consortium, and internationally known expert on cities and urban transportation systems, John Adams, as he discusses the broader implications of this Minnesota tragedy and explores possible solutions for the future.

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