John Von Neumann
1903-1957
Hungarian-born American Mathematician
One of the most influential figures of the twentieth century, John von Neumann was also one of the most creative minds of any era. Much of what modern computer users take for granted—for instance, the use of a central processing unit, or CPU—has its roots in von Neumann's foundational computer science work. Of his many other achievements, the most noteworthy include his work on game theory, quantum physics, and the development of the atomic bomb.
Born Janos von Neumann in Budapest, Hungary, on December 28, 1903, the future mathematician adopted the name John when he emigrated to the United States. His father, Max, was a prosperous banker, and he and von Neumann's mother, Margaret, soon recognized that they had a genius in the family; therefore they arranged to have him tutored at home. When he attended the Lutheran Gymnasium for boys, von Neumann's teachers placed him with a tutor from the University of Budapest, mathematician Michael Fekete.
Von Neumann studied in Budapest and Zürich, and also spent a great deal of time in Berlin. In 1926 he earned his Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Budapest with a dissertation on set theory. He went to work at the University of Berlin as the equivalent of an assistant professor, reportedly the youngest person to hold that position in the university's history. In 1926 von Neumann received a Rockefeller grant to conduct postdoctoral work with mathematician David Hilbert (1862-1943), who long remained a powerful influence, at the University of Göttingen. Already a rising star in the world of mathematics, von Neumann transferred to the University of Hamburg in 1929, the same year he married Mariette Kovesi. The two had a daughter, Marina, in 1935.
In his early work as Hilbert's student, von Neumann assisted his mentor in attempting to show the axiomatic consistency of arithmetic—a project doomed to failure by Gödel's incompleteness theorem. Hilbert was not destined to make significant contributions to quantum physics, but von Neumann's involvement in his teacher's attempts to apply the axiomatic approach to that discipline led him to an abstract unification of Schrödinger's wave theory and Heisenberg's particle theory. He was the first to affect such a union.
During the 1930s, von Neumann went to Princeton, where he became part of the newly formed Institute for Advanced Study. There he developed what came to be known as von Neumann algebras, published The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (1932), still considered essential reading on the subject, and investigated a number of other areas. In 1937 von Neumann, having become a naturalized citizen of the UnitedStates, began the first of many projects for the military, acting as a consultant in ballistics research for the army. During the same year, Mariette divorced him, but in 1938 he remarried to Klara Dan, who, like Mariette, was from Budapest.
John von Neumann. (AP/Wide World. Reproduced with permission.)During the early part of World War II, von Neumann worked on several defense-related projects. In 1943 he became involved in the development of an atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico. There he convinced J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) to investigate the use of an implosion technique in detonating the bomb. Simulation of this technique would require extensive calculations, which would be hopelessly time-consuming using old-fashioned methods. It was then that von Neumann began looking into the army's recently developed ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator)—the world's first computer.
Von Neumann and others improved on ENIAC with EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer), which incorporated von Neumann's groundbreaking concept of the stored program. This became the foundation for computer design, and later, in developing a computer for scientific use at Princeton, von Neumann established a number of features now essential to all computers: random access-memory (RAM), the use of input and output devices operating in serial or parallel mode, and other elements.
In the midst of his other work, von Neumann became immersed in game theory, a concept that had first intrigued him in Germany. Working with mathematical economist Oskar Morgenstern (1902-1977), who shared von Neumann's conviction that the mathematics of the physical sciences was not adequate for the study of social sciences, von Neumann began applying the idea of an analogy between games and complex decision-making processes. Today, game theory is used in a variety of fields, from business organization to military strategy.
Von Neumann remained involved in defense technology after the war, and contributed to the development of the hydrogen bomb as well as other weapons. He held a number of key positions, including a seat on the Atomic Energy Commission, to which President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him in 1954. Eisenhower also awarded von Neumann the Medal of Freedom, one of many prestigious honors he received. Diagnosed with bone cancer in 1955, von Neumann was confined to a wheelchair, but continued to work feverishly. He died on February 8, 1957, in Washington, D.C., at the age of 53.
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