Nobel-winning game theorist Reinhard Selten dies at 85

German economist Reinhard Selten, a recipient of the 1994 Nobel Prize in economics, has died. He was 85.

The University of Bonn, where he had taught since 1984, said in a statement Thursday that Selten died Aug. 23 in Poznan, Poland.

The university's rector, Michael Hoch, described Selten as "one of the most significant German scientists with the highest international reputation."

Selten received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences together with Hungarian-American John C. Harsanyi and American John F. Nash Jr.

They were jointly cited for their "pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games." Game theory has been used to explain human behavior in diverse fields such as economics, politics and biology.

Selten was born in 1930 in Breslau, now the Polish city of Wroclaw.