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John von Neumann (Neumann János) (December 28,
1903 – February 8, 1957) was a
Hungarian-born mathematician who made important
contributions in quantum physics, functional
analysis, set theory, computer science, economics
and many other mathematical fields. 

== Biography ==
The oldest of three children, von Neumann was born
János Lajos Margittai Neumann (two given names,
two surnames respectively) in Budapest to Neumann
Miksa (Max Neumann), a lawyer who worked in a
bank, and Kann Margit (Margaret Kann). Growing up
in a non-practising Jewish family, János,
nicknamed "Jancsi", showed incredible memory at an
early age, being able to divide eight-digit
numbers in his head at the age of six. At the same
age, when his mother once stared aimlessly in
front of him, he asked, "What are you
calculating?". János was already very interested
in math, the nature of numbers and the logic of
the world around him. He entered the Fasori
Gimnázium|Lutheran Gymnasium in 1911. In 1913,
his father purchased a title, and János acquired
the Austrian mark of nobility von, becoming János
von Neumann—János was anglicised to John
after he took up residence in the United States in
the 1930s.

He received his Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D. in
mathematics from the University of Budapest at the
age of 23. He simultaneously learnt chemistry in
Switzerland. Between 1926 and 1930 he was a
Privatdozent|private lecturer in Berlin, Germany.

Von Neumann was invited to Princeton University in
1930, and was one of four people selected for the
first faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study,
where he was a mathematics professor from its
formation in 1933 until his death. 

From 1936 to 1938 Alan Turing was a visitor at the
Institute, where he completed a Ph.D. dissertation
under the supervision of Alonzo Church. This visit
occurred shortly after Turing's publication of his
1936 paper "On Computable Numbers with an
Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" which
involved the concepts of logical design and the
universal machine. Von Neumann must have known of
Turing's ideas but it is not clear whether he
applied them to the design of the IAS machine ten
years later. 

In 1937, he became a naturalized citizen of the
United States. In 1938 von Neumann was awarded the
Bôcher Memorial Prize for his work in analysis.

Von Neumann was married twice. His first wife was
Mariette Koevesi, whom he married in 1930. Von
Neumann agreed to convert to Catholicism to
placate her family. The couple divorced in 1937
and Von Neumann married his second wife, Klara
Dan, in 1938. Von Neumann had one child, a
daughter Marina, from his first marriage.

== Scientific contributions ==
Von Neumann was one of the initiators of game
theory and published the classic book Theory of
Games and Economic Behavior with Oskar Morgenstern
in 1944. He worked in the Theory division at Los
Alamos National Laboratory|Los Alamos along with
Hans Bethe and Victor Weisskopf during World War
II as part of the Manhattan Project to develop the
first atomic weapons.

One of von Neumann's signature achievements was
his rigorous mathematical formulation of quantum
mechanics in terms of linear operators on Hilbert
spaces. He provided a rigorous foundation for
quantum statistical mechanics. He also proposed a
proof of the impossibility of hidden variables,
showing that quantum mechanics was profoundly
different from all previously known theories in
physics.  His proof contained a conceptual flaw,
although subsequently correct proofs were provided
by John Stewart Bell|John Bell and others. He
apparently held a  belief in the role of the
observer in creating the wavefunction
collapse|collapse of the quantum wave function,
which reflects in his contributions to the
development of the theory of quantum measurement. 

Von Neumann gave his name to the von Neumann
architecture used in most non-parallel-processing
computers, because of his publication of the
concept, though many feel that this naming ignores
the contribution of J. Presper Eckert and John
William Mauchly who worked on the concept during
their work on ENIAC. Virtually every commercially
available home computer, microcomputer and
supercomputer is a von Neumann machine. He created
the field of cellular automaton|cellular automata
without computers, constructing the first examples
of self-replication|self-replicating automata with
pencil and graph paper. The concept of a Universal
Constructor|universal constructor was fleshed out
in his posthumous work Theory of Self Reproducing
Automata. The term "von Neumann machine" also
refers to self-replicating machines. Von Neumann
proved that the most effective way large-scale
mining operations such as mining an entire natural
satellite|moon or asteroid belt can be
accomplished is through the use of
self-replicating machines, to take advantage of
the exponential growth of such mechanisms.

In addition to his work on architecture, he is
credited with at least one contribution to the
study of algorithms. Donald Knuth cites von
Neumann as the inventor, in 1945, of the well
known merge sort algorithm, in which the first and
second halves of an array are each sorted
recursively and then merged together.

He also engaged in exploration of problems in the
field of numerical hydrodynamics.  With R. D.
Richtmyer he developed an algorithm  defining
artificial viscosity, that proved essential to
understanding many kinds of shock waves.  It can
fairly be said that we would not understand much
of astrophysics, and might not even have highly
developed jet and rocket engines, without that
work.  The problem to be solved was that when
computers solve hydrodynamic or aerodynamic
problems, they try to put too many computational
gridpoints at regions of sharp discontinuity
(shock waves). The artificial viscosity was a
mathematical trick to slightly smooth the shock
transition without sacrificing basic physics.

Von Neumann had a mind of great ingenuity and near
Eidetic memory|total recall. He was an extrovert
who loved drinking, dancing and having a good
time. He had a fun-loving nature with a great love
of jokes and humor. He died of cancer in
Washington D.C..

== Honors ==


The John von Neumann Theory Prize of the Institute
for Operations Research and Management Science
(INFORMS, previously TIMS-ORSA) is awarded
annually to an individual (or sometimes group) who
have made fundamental and sustained contributions
to theory in operations research and the
management sciences. 

The IEEE John von Neumann Medal is awarded
annually by the IEEE "for outstanding 
achievements in computer-related science and
technology."

Von Neumann (crater)|Von Neumann, a crater on
Earth's Moon, is named after John von Neumann.

Von Neumann was honored on a U.S. postage stamp in
2005 as one of four American scientists. Along
with Barbara McClintock, Josiah Willard Gibbs, and
Richard Feynman, the set of self-adhesive 37-cent
stamps were made available on May 4, 2005 in a
pane of 20 stamps with five stamps for each.

== References ==
FOLDOC

==Further reading==
wikiquote|John von Neumann
* von Neumann, John and Arthur W. Burks. 1966.
Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata, Univ. of
Illinois Press, Urbana IL.
* von Neumann, John. 1932. "Mathematical
Foundations of Quantum Mechanics", Princeton U.
Press, Princeton NJ. Transl. by R.T. Beyer from
the original German.

== Students ==
* Donald B. Gillies, PhD student of John Von
Neumann.
* John P. Mayberry, PhD student of John Von
Neumann.

== External links ==
*MacTutor Biography|id=Von_Neumann
*
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IMR/is
_3-4_79/ai_113139424 John von Neumann's
contribution to economic science – By Maria
Joao Cardoso De Pina Cabral, International Social
Science Review, Fall-Winter 2003
*
http://cnls.lanl.gov/Highlights/2000-09/article.ht
m A Discussion of Artificial Viscosity
*
http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail454.htm
l Von Neuman's Universe, audio talk by George
Dyson (science historian)|George Dyson from IT
Conversations|ITConversations.com