William Newcomb

Who was William Newcomb?

William Newcomb, a professor and theoretical physicist at the University of California's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, is best known as the creator of Newcomb's paradox, devised in 1960. He was the great-grandson of the brother of the astronomer Simon Newcomb.

Newcomb started at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory probably in 1955 in the Energy Directorate. He was also an adjunct professor in the UC Davis Livermore Department of Applied Science since 1971. He died May 29, 1999.