The Cheerful Mathematician

Middle-sized, plumpish John von Neumann was a man people liked on sight. Those who barely knew him called him Johnny; he might have been a popular restaurateur or candy-shop proprietor. He was, instead, the greatest mathematician of his time. His ideas and personality had a profound effect on today's scientific age.

Born in Hungary two years before the publication of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, Von Neumann grew up during the scientific breakthrough that produced the quantum theory, nuclear physics, the atomic and hydrogen bombs. After studying and teaching at leading European universities, he came to the U.S. in 1930 to teach mathematical physics at Princeton, moved on in 1933 to join the Institute for Advanced Study. He became a U.S. citizen in 1937.

Key Contributions. No list of Von Neumann's honors and achievements more than hints at the strange, exciting world in which he lived so cheerily. His mathematical theories--e.g., set theory, ergodic theory--mean little to most laymen, but many of them have a way of showing up in unexpected and important places. His famous Theory of Games, for instance, is used to figure Air Force strategy. A whole school of mathematical economists is applying it to economic and sociological problems, including the behavior of the stock market.

Von Neumann played a vital part in the wartime atom-bomb project. After the war he continued to advise the Government on high-level scientific problems, including thermonuclear weapons and guided missiles. In 1955 he became a member of the Atomic Energy Commission. His advice was instrumental in convincing the Department of Defense that a high-yield thermonuclear warhead could be made light enough to be carried across an ocean by a ballistic missile of practicable size. This thermonuclear breakthrough now dominates the thinking of the U.S. (and probably of the U.S.S.R.) about strategic warfare.

Von Neumann lived in an age of warlike science, but not all of his practical work was concerned with war. He made key contributions to the mathematics of giant computing machines, and although computers using his theories are essential for designing thermonuclear weapons, they also have such important peacetime functions as forecasting the weather and controlling the operation of oil refineries.

New Light. Like other first-rate intellects, Von Neumann had an uncanny gift for explanation, and the wonder of clear communication in his abstruse field happened whether he was talking to a packed lecture hall or to a single listener. He would grin, draw a few symbols on the blackboard, say a few simple words and grin again. Then, little by little, a new kind of light would begin to shine on the most difficult subject.

During the summer of 1955 Von Neumann learned that he had cancer. As the disease progressed, he still kept at work, attended AEC meetings in a wheelchair as long as he was able. The last months of his life he spent in Walter Reed Army Hospital. There last week, at 53, he died.

On hearing of his death. President Eisenhower and AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss expressed heartfelt regrets to his wife. Both knew only too well that he could not be replaced.

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