Von Neumann, << von NOY mahn, >> John (1903-1957), was a Hungarian-American mathematician who made important contributions to several areas of science. He wrote The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (1932). Quantum mechanics is a field of physics that describes the structure of the atom and the motion of subatomic particles (units of matter smaller than an atom).
Von Neumann also founded game theory, a mathematical method for studying competitions. This method is used to investigate complex problems in economics, political science, and sociology. Perhaps von Neumann’s best-known book is The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944), written with Oskar Morgenstern, a German-born Austrian economist. See Game theory .
Von Neumann made important contributions to computer science. He developed the idea of a central processing unit (CPU) that works with programs and data stored in random access memory (RAM). Virtually all modern computers are based on von Neumann’s design. His second wife, the computer programmer Klara Dan Von Neumann, made significant contributions to his work. Von Neumann was born on Dec. 28, 1903, in Budapest, Hungary. In 1937, he became an American citizen. He died on Feb. 8, 1957.
