John von Neumann
John von Neumann (/vɒn ˈnɔɪmən/; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Jewish-born Hungarian and later American mathematician, physicist, inventor, polymath, and polyglot.
Contents
Life
Von Neumann made major contributions to many fields, including:
- Mathematics (foundations of mathematics, functional analysis, ergodic theory, geometry, topology, and numerical analysis)
- Physics (quantum mechanics, hydrodynamics, and fluid dynamics)
- Economics
- Computing
- Stochastic computing
- Statistics
He was a pioneer of the application of operator theory to quantum mechanics, in the development of functional analysis, and a key figure in the development of game theory and the concepts of cellular automata, the universal constructor, and the digital computer.
Von Neumann's mathematical analysis of the structure of self-replication preceded the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Statement
In a short list of facts about his life he submitted to the National Academy of Sciences, he stated:
"The part of my work I consider most essential is that on quantum mechanics, which developed in Göttingen in 1926, and subsequently in Berlin in 1927–1929. Also, my work on various forms of operator theory, Berlin 1930 and Princeton 1935–1939; on the ergodic theorem, Princeton, 1931–1932."
Manhattan Project and nuclear physics
Von Neumann was a principal member of the Manhattan Project and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (as one of the few originally appointed).
Along with theoretical physicist Edward Teller and mathematician Stanislaw Ulam, von Neumann worked out key steps in the nuclear physics involved in thermonuclear reactions and the hydrogen bomb.
Papers
Von Neumann wrote one hundred and fifty published papers in his life; sixty in pure mathematics, twenty in physics, and sixty in applied mathematics.
Last work
His last work, an unfinished manuscript written while in the hospital and later published in book form as ''The Computer and the Brain'', gives an indication of the direction of his interests at the time of his death.
See also
External links
- John Von Neumann @ Wikipedia
