John von Neumann
- Born: December 28, 1903 (Budapest, Austria-Hungary)
- Died: February 8, 1957 (Washington, DC)
Education
- 1921–1923: University of Berlin
- 1925: ECh, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zurich
- 1926: PhD, University of Budapest
Major Positions
- 1926–1926: University of Göttingen, Rockefeller Fellow
- 1927–1929: University of Berlin, Privatdozent
- 1929–1929: University of Hamburg, Privatdozent
- 1930–1931: Princeton University, Lecturer
- 1931–1933: Institute for Advanced Study, Visiting Professor of Mathematical Physics
- 1933–1957: Institute for Advanced Study, Permanent Member and Research Professor
- 1955–1957: United States Atomic Energy Commission, Commissioner
Other Positions
- 1945–1957: Institute for Advanced Study, Director, Electronic Computer Project
- 1951–1953: American Mathematical Society, President
Selected Part-Time Positions
- 1940–1957: Member, Scientific Advisory Committee, Ballistics Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, United States Army
- 1941–1955: Consultant, Bureau of Ordnance, United States Navy
- 1943–1955: Consultant, Los Alamos National Laboratory
- 1947–1955: Consultant, Naval Ordnance Laboratory, United States Navy
- 1949–1953: Member, Research and Development Board, United States Department of Defense
- 1949–1954: Consultant, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- 1950–1955: Consultant, Armed Forces Special Weapons Project
- 1950–1955: Consultant, Weapons Systems Evaluation Group, United States Department of Defense
- 1950–1957: Member, Board of Advisors, University of the Andes
- 1951–1957: Member, Scientific Advisory Board, United States Air Force
- 1952–1954: Member, General Advisory Committee, United States Atomic Energy Commission
- 1953–1957: Member, Technical Advisory Board on Atomic Energy, United States Department of Defense
- 1954–1957: Chair, Advisory Committee on Guided Missiles, United States Department of Defense
Selected Awards and Honors
- 1937: National Academy of Sciences, Member
- 1956: United States Atomic Energy Commission, Enrico Fermi Award
Archival Resources
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, DC
Online Finding Aid
Published Resources
S. Bochner, "John von Neumann: 1903-1957", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences
Steve J. Heims, John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener: From Mathematics to the Technologies of Life and Death (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1980)
Tamás Legendi and Tibor Szentivanyi, Leben und Werk von John von Neumann: Ein Zusammenfassender Uberblick (Mannheim : Bibliographisches Institut, 1983)
Mohammed Dore, Sukhamoy Chakravarty, and Richard Goodwin, eds., John von Neumann and Modern Economics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989)
William Aspray, John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990)
James Glimm, John Impagliazzo, and Isadore Singer, eds., The Legacy of John von Neumann (Providence: American Mathematical Society, 1990)
Norman Macrae, John von Neumann (New York: Pantheon Books, 1992)
William Poundstone, Prisoner's Dilemma: John von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb (New York: Doubleday, 1992)
Miklós Rédei and Michael Stöltzner, eds., John von Neumann and the Foundations of Quantum Physics (Boston: Klewer Academic, 2001)
László Kovács, László Rátz and John von Neumann: A Gifted Teacher and His Brilliant Pupil (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2003)
István Hargittai, The Martians of Science: Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006)
Robert Leonard, Von Neumann, Morgerstern, and the Creation of Game Theory: From Chess to Social Science, 1900-1960 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010)
John Todd, "John von Neumann and the National Accounting Machine," SIAM Review 16 (1974): 525-530
Trevor J. Pinch, "What Does a Proof Do If It Does Not Prove? A Study of the Social Conditions and Metaphysical Divisions Leading to David Bohm and John von Neumann Failing to Communicate in Quantum Physics," in Social Production of Scientific Knowledge, ed. Everett Mendelsohn (Dordrecht: Reidel: 1977), 171-216
Steve J. Heims, "Gregory Bateson and the Mathematicians: From Interdisciplinary Interaction to Societal Functions," Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 13 (1977): 141-159
Nancy Stern, "John von Neumann's Influence on Electronic Digital Computing, 1944-1946," Annals of the History of Computing 2 (1980): 349-362
Stanislaw Ulam, "John von Neumann, 1903-1957," Annals of the History of Computing 4 (1982): 157-181
Herman H. Goldstine, "The Role of John von Neumann in the Computer Field," in Springs of Scientific Creativity: Essays on Founders of Modern Science, ed. Rutherford Aris (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press: 1983), 308-327
Marcello Cini, "The Context of Discovery and the Context of Validation: The Proposals of Von Neumann and Wiener in the Development of 20th-Century Physics," Rivista di Storia della Scienza 2 (1985): 99-122
William Aspray, "The Mathematical Reception of the Modern Computer: John von Neumann and the Institute for Advanced Study Computer," in Studies in the History of Mathematics, ed. Esther R. Phillips (Washington, DC: Mathematical Institute of America: 1987), 166-194
Helmut Schnelle, "Turing Naturalized: Von Neumann's Unfinished Project," in Universal Turing Machine: A Half-Century Survey, ed. Rolf Herken (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press: 1988), 539-559
Jean R. Brink and C. Roland Haden, eds., "The Computer and the Brain: An International Symposium in Commemoration of John von Neumann (1903-1957)," Annals of the History of Computing 11 (1989): 159-201
William Aspray, "The Transformation of Numerical Analysis by the Computer: An Example from the Work of John von Neumann," in History of Modern Mathematics, Vol. 2, ed. David E. Rowe and John McCleary (Boston: Academic Press: 1989), 307-322
Philip Mirowski, "What Were von Neumann and Morgenstern Trying to Accomplish?," in Toward a History of Game Theory, ed. E. Roy Weintraub (Durham: Duke University Press: 1992)
Urs Rellstab, "New Insights into the Collaboration between John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern on the 'Theory of Games and Economic Behavior'," in Toward a History of Game Theory, ed. E. Roy Weintraub (Durham: Duke University Press: 1992)
Paul A. Samuelson, "Economics and Thermodynamics: Von Neumann's Problematic Conjecture," in Rational Interaction: Essays in Honor of John C. Harsanyi, ed. Reinhard Selten (Berlin: Springer: 1992)
Michael D. Godfrey and David F. Hendry, "The Computer as Von Neumann Planned It," Annals of the History of Computing 15 (1993): 11-21
Louis Caruana, "John von Neumann's 'Impossibility Proof' in a Historical Perspective," Physis: Rivista Internazionale di Storia della Scienza 32 (1995): 109-124
Henry Krips, "Rhetoric, Ideology, and Desire in von Neumann's 'Gründlagen'," in Science, Reason, and Rhetoric, ed. Henry Krips, et al. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press: 1995), 279-293
Luca Dell'Aglio, "Divergences in the History of Mathematics: Borel, von Neumann, and the Genesis of Game Theory," Rivista di Storia della Scienza 3 (1995): 1-45
Miklós Rédei, "Why John von Neumann Did Not Like the Hilbert Space Formalism of Quantum Mechanics (and What He Liked Instead)," Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 27 (1996): 493-510
Eftichios Bitsakis, "On the Validity of Von Neumann's Theorem," in Issues and Images in the Philosophy of Science, ed. Dimitri Ginev and Robert S. Cohen (Dordrecht: Kluwer: 1997), 47-62
Lily E. Kay, "Cybernetics, Information, Life: The Emergence of Scriptural Representations of Heredity," Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology 5 (1997): 23-91
Pierre Marchal, "John von Neumann: The Founding Father of Artificial Life," Arificial Life 4 (1998): 229-235
Eloína Peláez, "The Stored-Program Computer: Two Conceptions," Social Studies of Science 29 (1999): 359-389
Jan Lacki, "The Early Axiomatizations of Quantum Mechanics: Jordan, von Neumann, and the Continuation of Hilbert's Program," Archive for History of Exact Sciences 54 (2000): 279-318
Tinne Hoff Kjeldsen, "John von Neumann's Conception of the Minimax Theorem: A Journey through Different Mathematical Contexts," Archive for History of Exact Sciences 56 (2001): 39-68
Amy Dahan Dalmédico, "History and Epistemology of Models: Meteorology (1946-1963) as a Case Study," Archive for History of Exact Sciences 55 (2001): 395-422
Giorgio Israel and Ana Millán Gasca, "Von Neumann : La Matematica per il Dominio della Realtà," Grandi della Scienza 5 (2002): 4-95
Joseph D. Zund, "George David Birkhoff and John von Neumann: A Question of Priority and the Ergodic Theorems, 1931-1932," Historia Mathematica 29 (2002): 138-156
Antonio Venezia, "Un Caso Storico Irrisolto: Le Critiche di Popper alla Logica Quantistica di Birkhoff e Von Neumann," Historia Mathematica 29 (2002): 138-156
Leah Henderson, "The von Neumann Entropy: A Reply to Shenker," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 54 (2003): 291-296
Angelo Guerraggio and Elena Molho, "The Origins of Quasi-Concavity: A Development between Mathematics and Economics," Historica Mathematica 31 (2004): 62-75
Lon Becker, "That von Neumann Did Not Believe in a Physical Collapse," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 55 (2004): 121-135
Salim Rashid, "John von Neumann and Scientific Method," Journal of the History of Ideas 68 (2007): 501-527
Jeremy Bernstein, "John von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs: An Unlikely Collaboration," Physics in Perspective 12 (2010): 36-50
Giambattista Formica, "Von Neumann's Methodology of Science: From Incompleteness Theorems to Later Foundational Reflections," Perspective on Science 18 (2010): 480-499
