von Neumann

John von Neumann

Born: 28 Dec 1903 in Budapest, Hungary
Died: 8 Feb 1957 in Washington D.C., USA

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Von Neumann built a solid framework for quantum mechanics. He also worked in game theory, was able to investigate spaces with continuously varying dimensions, and was one of the pioneers of computer science.

von Neumann studied chemistry at the University of Berlin and received his diploma in chemical engineering from the Technische Hochschule in Zürich in 1926. He received his doctorate from the University of Budapest, also in 1926, with a thesis on set theory. He published a definition of ordinal numbers when he was 20, the definition is the one used today.

von Neumann lectured at Berlin from 1926 to 1929 and at Hamburg from 1929 to 1930. In 1930 von Neumann became a visiting lecturer at Princeton University, being appointed professor there in 1931. He became one of the original six mathematics professors in 1933 at the newly founded Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, a position he kept for the remainder of his life.

Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik (1932) built a solid framework for the new quantum mechanics. During this time he also worked in game theory and proved the minimax theorem. He gradually expanded his work in game theory, and with co-author Oskar Morgenstern he wrote Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour (1944).

The second half of the 1930's saw von Neumann working with F J Murray on 'rings of operators' that are now called von Neumann algebras. He was able to investigate spaces with continuously varying dimensions.

von Neumann was one of the pioneers of computer science making significant contributions to the development of logical design. He advanced the theory of cellular automata, advocated the adoption of the bit as a measurement of computer memory, and solved problems in obtaining reliable answers from unreliable computer components.

During and after World War II, von Neumann served as a consultant to the armed forces. His valuable contributions included a proposal of the implosion method for bringing nuclear fuel to explosion and his participation in the development of the hydrogen bomb. In 1955 President Eisenhower appointed him to the Atomic Energy Commission, and in 1956 he received its Enrico Fermi Award, knowing that he was incurably ill with cancer.

References elsewhere in this archive:

Tell me about von Neumann's work on set theory and tell me about his work on quantum theory

Other Web sites:

University of Vermont, USA
Clarke University, USA
Drexel University, USA

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. S Ulam, John von Neumann, 1903-1957, Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 64 (1958), 1-49.
  4. S J Heims, John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener (Cambridge Mass., 1980).
  5. N Macrae, John von Neumann (New York, 1992).
  6. W Aspray, John von Neumann and the origins of modern computing (Cambridge, Mass., 1990).
  7. W Poundstone, Prisoner's dilemma (Oxford, 1993).
  8. T A Heppenheimer, How Von Neumann showed the way, American heritage of invention and technology 6 (2) (1990), 8-16. 
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