János Neumann (John von Neumann)

He completed his secondary education at the famous Fasori High School in Budapest, where he was taught mathematics by the renowned László Rátz. At the age of 19, he co-authored a paper with mathematician Mihály Fekete entitled “On the Zeros of Certain Minimum Polynomials”.

After his university studies, he taught as a private university tutor at the University of Berlin (1926-28) and then at the University of Hamburg (1929-1930). From 1930, he taught at Princeton University (Princeton, USA) until 1933, when he was invited to the famous Institute for Advanced Study research institute located near the university, where the world's most distinguished scientists worked, including Albert Einstein and Kurt Gödel. Later, the IAS computer was built here under his supervision (1952).

Between 1926 and 1937, he was mainly concerned with mathematical and quantum mechanical questions. After completing the axiom system of set theory, he began to axiomatize quantum mechanics. As a result of his work, his fundamental book “Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics” was published in 1932. His further research led him to prove (together with G. Birkhoff) that quantum mechanics requires a different logic than classical mechanics.

During World War II, in addition to his previous activities, he also became involved in military technology research, and his interest increasingly turned towards the applications of mathematics. He participated in several American military projects as a consultant. He regularly visited Los Alamos, where he participated in the secret program related to the construction of the first atomic bomb, and in the theoretical work related to its production.

In 1955, he was appointed to the five-member U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). While studying the shock waves generated by experimental explosions of atomic and hydrogen bombs, he discovered complex mathematical relationships that could no longer be solved by classical methods. It was then that his interest turned to the possibilities of high-speed electronic calculations.

In 1944, he joined the team led by W. Mauchly and P.J. Eckert at the Moore School (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA) that was building the ENIAC computer as a consultant. As a result of their joint work, Neumann formulated the principles of a new computer, the EDVAC, designed based on the experiences of ENIAC ( First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC ). In this draft, he first formulated the principles of stored-program computers, which have been used to build computers ever since.

Neumann is credited with the creation of game theory (minimax principle, 1928), which he developed with economist O. Morgenstern. Game theory has become a frequently used method in modern politics and economics, and several Nobel Prizes have been awarded for its further development, including to János Harsányi of Hungarian origin.

His broad interests and outstanding ability to abstract have led to fundamental results in many other fields (e.g. numerical mathematics, meteorology, ergodic theory, automata theory, etc.). We would like to highlight his ideas that played a fundamental role in the further development of computer science; these

• self-reproducing automatons (see 3D printing),
• the principles of creating reliable machines from unreliable components,
• cellular automata (see the game of life and evolutionary genetics),
• on the functioning of the human mind (“The Calculator and the Brain”)

they were related.

His achievements were recognized in many ways. He was a member of the American Academy of Sciences; he was president of the American Mathematical Society; he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1956); he received the Albert Einstein Memorial Medal; and he was awarded the Enrico Fermi Award from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (1956).