Stanislaw Ulam
Stanisław Marcin Ulam (pronounced ['staɲiswaf 'mart͡ɕin 'ulam]; 13 April 1909 – 13 May 1984) was a Polish-American mathematician.
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Biography
He participated in America's Manhattan Project, originated the Teller–Ulam design of thermonuclear weapons, invented the Monte Carlo method of computation, and suggested nuclear pulse propulsion.
In pure mathematics and applied mathematics, he proved some theorems and proposed several conjectures.
The Fermi–Pasta–Ulam problem
With Enrico Fermi and John Pasta, Ulam studied the Fermi–Pasta–Ulam problem, which became the inspiration for the field of non-linear science.
The Monte Carlo method
He is probably best known for realizing that electronic computers made it practical to apply statistical methods to functions without known solutions, and as computers have developed, the Monte Carlo method has become a common and standard approach to many problems.
Nonlinear systems
Ulam said of nonlinear systems (or nonlinear science):
Using a term like nonlinear science is like referring to the bulk of zoology as the study of non-elephant animals.
— Stanislaw Ulam
See also
External links
- Stanislaw Ulam @ Wikipedia
