Ulam, Feynman, &
von Neumann
circa The Manhattan Project
Stan Ulam, 1909– 1984
While Ulam was at Los Alamos solving the problem
of how to initiate fusion in the hydrogen bomb, he developed the
'Monte-Carlo method' which searched for solutions to
mathematical problems using a statistical sampling method with
random numbers. His method is widely used today in solving
mathematical problems using statistical sampling. He remained at
Los Alamos until 1965 when he was appointed to the chair of
mathematics at the University of Colorado. At the time of his
death he was professor of biomathematics at the University of
Colorado.
Richard Feynman, 1918 - 1988
Feynman worked on the atomic bomb project first
at Princeton University and then at Los Alamos. In 1945, Feynman
was appointed as a professor of theoretical physics at Cornell
University. In 1950 Feynman became professor of theoretical
physics at the California Institute of Technology, where he
remained for the rest of his career. He was awarded the Nobel
Prize in 1965.
John von Neumann,
1903 - 1957
John von Neumann quickly perceived the
application of computers to applied mathematics for specific
problems. He became one of the original six mathematics
professors (with J W Alexander, A Einstein, M Morse, O Veblen,
and H Weyl) in 1933 at the newly founded Institute for Advanced
Study in Princeton, a position he kept for the remainder of his
life. He brought together the needs of the Los Alamos National
Laboratory (and the Manhattan Project).
