Clyde Hamilton Coombs was an American psychologist

Psychologist

Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...

 specializing in the field of mathematical psychology

Psychometrics

Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational measurement...

. He devised a voting system, that was hence named Coombs' method

Coombs' method

The Coombs' method is a voting system created by Clyde Coombs used for single-winner elections in which each voter rank the candidates in order of preference. It is very similar to instant-runoff voting , a more common preferential voting system.-Procedures:Each voter rank-orders all of the...

.

Coombs founded the Mathematical Psychology program at The University of Michigan, and his students included the late Amos Tversky

Amos Tversky

Amos Nathan Tversky, was a cognitive and mathematical psychologist, a pioneer of cognitive science, a longtime collaborator of Daniel Kahneman, and a key figure in the discovery of systematic human cognitive bias and handling of risk. Much of his early work concerned the foundations of measurement...

, Robyn Dawes

Robyn Dawes

Robyn Mason Dawes was an American psychologist who specialized in the field of human judgment. His research interests included human irrationality, human cooperation, intuitive expertise, and the United States AIDS policy...

, and Baruch Fischhoff, all important researchers in Decision Sciences. The classic text "An Introduction to Mathematical Psychology," by Coombs, Dawes, and Tversky was a must for Michigan graduate students in Mathematical and Experimental Psychology.