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Ulam solved the problem of how to initiate fusion in the hydrogen bomb. He also devised the 'Monte-Carlo method' widely used in solving mathematical problems using statistical sampling.
Ulam obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Lvov, Poland. He then investigated a problem which originated with Lebesgue in 1902 to find a measure on [0,1] with certain properties. Banach in 1929 had solved a related measure problem, but assuming the Generalised Continuum Hypothesis. Ulam, in 1930, strengthened Banach's result by proving it without using the Generalised Continuum Hypothesis.
In 1936 Ulam went to the USA and taught at Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin.
He worked on the hydrogen bomb at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. While he was there he developed the 'Monte-Carlo method' which searched for solutions to mathematical problems using a statistical sampling method with random numbers. It is now widely used in computer implementations of mathematical software.
Ulam, with J C Everett, proposed the 'Orion' plan for nuclear propulsion of space vehicles.
He was appointed to the chair of mathematics at the University of Colorado in 1965. At the time of his death he was professor of biomathematics at the University of Colorado.
Ulam's writing include A collection of mathematical problems (1960), Sets numbers and universes (1974) and Adventures of a Mathematician (1976).
He was described by Rota in the following way:
Ulam's mind is a repository of thousands of stories, tales, jokes, epigrams, remarks, puzzles, tounge-twisters, footnotes, conclusions, slogans, formulas, diagrams, quotations, limericks, summaries, quips, epitaphs, and headlines. In the course of a normal conversation he simply pulls out of his mind the fifty-odd relevant items, and presents them in linear succession. A second-order memory prevents him from repeating himself too often before the same public.
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