Editing John Forbes Nash Jr. (section)

== Early life and education ==
John Forbes Nash Jr. was born on June 13, 1928, in [[Bluefield, West Virginia]]. His father and namesake, John Forbes Nash Sr., was an [[electrical engineer]] for the [[American Electric Power#Appalachian Power|Appalachian Electric Power Company]]. His mother, Margaret Virginia (née Martin) Nash, had been a schoolteacher before she was married. He was baptized in the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]].{{sfnm|1a1=Nasar|1y=1998|1loc=Chapter 1}} He had a younger sister, Martha (born November 16, 1930).<ref name="Nash1995">{{cite conference|last1=Nash|first1=John F. Jr.|year=1995|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1994/nash-bio.html|title=John F. Nash Jr. – Biographical|book-title=The Nobel Prizes 1994: Presentations, Biographies & Lectures|editor-first1=Tore|editor-last1=Frängsmyr|publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]]|location=Stockholm|editor-link1=Tore Frängsmyr|isbn=978-91-85848-24-9|pages=275–279}}</ref>

Nash attended kindergarten and public school, and he learned from books provided by his parents and grandparents.<ref name="Nash1995" /> Nash's parents pursued opportunities to supplement their son's education, and arranged for him to take advanced mathematics courses at nearby Bluefield College (now [[Bluefield University]]) during his final year of high school. He attended [[Carnegie Mellon University|Carnegie Institute of Technology]] (which later became Carnegie Mellon University) through a full benefit of the George Westinghouse Scholarship, initially majoring in [[chemical engineering]]. He switched to a [[chemistry]] major and eventually, at the advice of his teacher [[John Lighton Synge]], to mathematics.  After graduating in 1948, with both a [[Bachelor of Science|B.S.]] and [[Master of Science|M.S.]] in mathematics, Nash accepted a fellowship to [[Princeton University]], where he pursued further [[Princeton University Department of Mathematics|graduate studies]] in mathematics and sciences.<ref name="Nash1995" />

Nash's adviser and former Carnegie professor [[Richard Duffin]] wrote a letter of recommendation for Nash's entrance to Princeton stating, "He is a mathematical genius."<ref>{{cite web |title=Nash recommendation letter |url=https://webspace.princeton.edu/users/mudd/Digitization/AC105/AC105_Nash_John_Forbes_1950.pdf  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170607041209/https://webspace.princeton.edu/users/mudd/Digitization/AC105/AC105_Nash_John_Forbes_1950.pdf |archive-date=June 7, 2017 |access-date=June 5, 2015 |page=23}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |editor1-first=Harold W. |editor1-last=Kuhn |editor2-first=Sylvia |editor2-last=Nasar |editor-link=Sylvia Nasar |url=http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i7238.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070101170703/http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i7238.pdf |archive-date=2007-01-01 |url-status=live |title=The Essential John Nash |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |pages=Introduction, xi |access-date=April 17, 2008}}</ref> Nash was also accepted at [[Harvard University]], along with the [[University of Chicago]] and the [[University of Michigan]]. However, the chairman of the mathematics department at Princeton, [[Solomon Lefschetz]], offered him the [[John Stewart Kennedy|John S. Kennedy]]<!-- NOTE: not John F. Kennedy--> fellowship, convincing Nash that Princeton valued him more.{{sfnm|1a1=Nasar|1y=1998|1loc=Chapter 2}} Further, he considered Princeton more favorably because of its proximity to his family in Bluefield.<ref name="Nash1995" /> At Princeton, he began work on his equilibrium theory, later known as the [[Nash equilibrium]].<ref>Nasar (2002), pp. xvi–xix.</ref>