Experts from 12 countries to discuss global Issues in Riverside

RIVERSIDE – UC Riverside will host a conference next month in which experts from a dozen countries will addresses global and international issues, it was announced this week.

The eighth Game Theory Practice conference is scheduled July 11-12 in the Spanish Art Gallery at the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside, according to UC Riverside. It will be the first time the meeting is held in the United States.

Speakers from Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the U.S. will discuss issues ranging from natural resources (water and forestry) to peace talks, weapon control, terrorism, pollution, trade and climate change, the release said.

Keynote speeches will be given by Guillermo Owen of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and Ngo Van Long of McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Owen is an expert on game theory, while Long’s research deals with microeconomic theory.

UC Riverside’s Water Science and Policy Center and the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management are co-sponsoring the conference.

“With globalization, we see more frequent and increased competition over natural resources, such as land, fisheries, forests, water, and environmental pollution,” said Ariel Dinar, the director of the WSPC and the lead organizer of the conference.

“In addition, global agreements on trade, migration, climate change and technology transfer are becoming part of the discussion and negotiation of the international community in different forums. The purpose of the meeting is to demonstrate the usefulness of game theory in these fields.”

Game theory models strategic situations in which an individual’s success in making choices depends on the choices of others. It involves mathematics, economics and behavioral sciences, and helps explain human behavior.

It also involves considerations of the strategic behavior of decision-makers under various situations when actions by one decision maker can affect the welfare of others.

The conference, which has a registration fee, is open to the public.