Richard Michael Cyert was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
economistAn economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
and
statisticianA statistician is someone who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it...
who served as the sixth
PresidentAn academic administration is a branch of university or college employees responsible for the maintenance and supervision of the institution and separate from the faculty or academics, although some personnel may have joint responsibilities...
of
Carnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
in
PittsburghPittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
,
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Early life
He was born in
Winona, MinnesotaWinona is a city in and the county seat of Winona County, in the U.S. State of Minnesota. Located in picturesque bluff country on the Mississippi River, its most noticeable physical landmark is Sugar Loaf....
and grew up in
MinneapolisMinneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
. He received a
B.S.A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
from the
University of MinnesotaThe University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
in 1943, then joined the U.S. Navy. On the G.I. Bill he earned his
Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in economics from
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
following
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. At Columbia, however, he became a specialist in statistics as well. He taught briefly at
City College of New YorkThe City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
, then took a position in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1948 to teach statistics in accounting and auditing.
Carnegie Mellon years
Cyert taught economics, statistics, and industrial administration for the next 14 years, then was named dean of the
Graduate School of Industrial AdministrationThe Tepper School of Business is a private business school located on Carnegie Mellon University’s campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.The school consistently ranks highly among the top business schools in the U.S., as well as in a wide range of specializations, such as finance,...
. In 1972 he became the university's sixth president. During his tenure as president, he led Carnegie Mellon through unparalleled growth, transforming it from an Eastern technical school to a premiere American university. He faced inherited deficits by first cutting costs, which gained him some enemies, and later launched the largest expansion in the school's 98-year history. The number of departments and programs ranked in the Top 10 nationally by deans' surveys rose from three—computer science, drama, and industrial administration—to twelve. His administration initiated new program areas in urban and public policy, engineering, architecture, art, cognitive psychology, social history, philosophy, and applied math.
Throughout his administrative career he remained active in his academic fields. He was the author or co-author of 12 books and wrote more than 100 articles for professional journals and books.
After retiring from CMU, Cyert served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Institute of Statistical Sciences at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. He served for four years, until illness forced him to step down. He died following a long battle with cancer.
For 52 years he was married to Margaret Shadick Cyert; they had three daughters.
Cyert Hall, Carnegie Mellon's computing administration building, is named after Richard Cyert.
Works
- Models in a Behavioral Theory of the Firm, with E. A. Feigenbaum, and James March, Behavioral Science, April, 1959, pp81–95
- Behavioral Theory of the Firm with James March. Oxford: Blackwell, 1963.
- Multi-Period Decision Models with Alternating Choice as a Solution to the Duopoly Problem, with M. H. DeGroot, Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1970, pp410–429
- Management Decision Making (1971) with Lawrence A. Welsch
- The American Economy, 1960-2000 (1983)
- Technology and Employment (1987)
- Computational Organization Theory (1994) with Kathleen M. Carley and Michael J. Prietula