Chiang to Present Paul J. Thomas Lecture at YSU

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Eric Chiang, professor-in-residence at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, will present the 2024 Paul J. Thomas Lecture titled “Game Theory and the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election” at 6 p.m. Oct. 16 in the auditorium in the Williamson College of Business Administration at Youngstown State University.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Game theory explains how people make decisions when their choices depend on others’ actions. Chiang’s lecture will explore key concepts like the Nash equilibrium, various types of games such as the prisoner’s dilemma and chicken games, and how these ideas apply to elections and everyday decisions. How voting structures influence campaign strategies, with U.S. presidential candidates often appealing to the “average voter,” will also be examined. 

Chiang received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Florida in 2002 and joined the faculty at Florida Atlantic University in 2003. Over his 20-year career at FAU, he served as the director of instructional technology for the College of Business and taught over 18,000 students, from introductory to Ph.D.-level economics courses. In 2009 he won FAU’s Distinguished Teacher of the Year, the university’s top teaching award.

In 2023 Chiang returned to the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where he currently serves as professor-in-residence. He has published 42 peer-reviewed journal articles and is the author of Economics: Principles for a Changing World, a textbook currently in use at 85 colleges and universities.

Tomi Ovaska, professor of economics at YSU and the Paul J. Thomas Endowed Chair in Economics, will host the lecture.

Attendees can park in the M30 parking deck on Wick Avenue. For more information, contact Ovaska at [email protected] or 330 941 3084.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.