Late 20th Century · Political Science / Computer Science
Robert Axelrod (born 1943) is an American political scientist and professor at the University of Michigan, renowned for his interdisciplinary work bridging political science and computer science. He gained widespread recognition for his groundbreaking research on the evolution of cooperation, most famously through his computer tournaments and analysis of the 'tit-for-tat' strategy in iterated prisoner's dilemma games. His work fundamentally reshaped understanding of cooperation in biological, social, and political systems.