He developed the atomic theory series#

Von Neumann entered the Lutheran Fasori Evangélikus Gimnázium in 1914. One of the rooms in the apartment was converted into a library and reading room.

He developed the atomic theory series#

He was also interested in history, reading Wilhelm Oncken's 46-volume world history series Allgemeine Geschichte in Einzeldarstellungen ( General History in Monographs). By age eight, von Neumann was familiar with differential and integral calculus, and by twelve he had read Borel's La Théorie des Fonctions. Von Neumann's father believed that knowledge of languages other than their native Hungarian was essential, so the children were tutored in English, French, German and Italian. He, his brothers and his cousins were instructed by governesses.

Von Neumann was a child prodigy who at six years old could divide two eight-digit numbers in his head and converse in Ancient Greek. Neumann János became margittai Neumann János (John Neumann de Margitta), which he later changed to the German Johann von Neumann. The family had no connection with the town the appellation was chosen in reference to Margaret, as was their chosen coat of arms depicting three marguerites. The Neumann family thus acquired the hereditary appellation Margittai, meaning 'of Margitta' (today Marghita, Romania). On February 20, 1913, Emperor Franz Joseph elevated John's father to the Hungarian nobility for his service to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Three generations of the Kann family lived in spacious apartments above the Kann-Heller offices in Budapest von Neumann's family occupied an 18-room apartment on the top floor. John's mother was Kann Margit (English: Margaret Kann) her parents were Jakab Kann and Katalin Meisels of the Meisels family. Miksa's father and grandfather were born in Ond (now part of Szerencs), Zemplén County, northern Hungary. He had moved to Budapest from Pécs at the end of the 1880s.

His father Neumann Miksa (Max von Neumann) was a banker and held a doctorate in law. He was the eldest of three brothers his two younger siblings were Mihály (Michael) and Miklós (Nicholas). In Hungarian, the family name comes first, and his given names are equivalent to John Louis in English. Von Neumann was born in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), on December 28, 1903, to a wealthy, non-observant Jewish family. Accolades he received range from the Medal of Freedom to a crater on the Moon named in his honor. Von Neumann's contributions and intellectual ability drew praise from colleagues in physics, mathematics, and beyond. At that time he was considered the nation's foremost expert on nuclear weaponry and the leading defense scientist at the Pentagon. He played a key role alongside Bernard Schriever and Trevor Gardner in the design and development of the United States' first ICBM programs. He was also a member of the influential Atomic Energy Commission in charge of all atomic energy development in the country. At the peak of his influence in the 1950s, he chaired a number of Defense Department committees including the Strategic Missile Evaluation Committee and the ICBM Scientific Advisory Committee. Before and after the war, he consulted for many organizations including the Office of Scientific Research and Development, the Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory, the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He developed the mathematical models behind the explosive lenses used in the implosion-type nuclear weapon. His analysis of the structure of self-replication preceded the discovery of the structure of DNA.ĭuring World War II, von Neumann worked on the Manhattan Project. He was a pioneer in building the mathematical framework of quantum physics, in the development of functional analysis, and in game theory, introducing or codifying concepts including cellular automata, the universal constructor and the digital computer. He had perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time, integrating pure and applied sciences and making major contributions to many fields, including mathematics, physics, economics, computing, and statistics. John von Neumann ( / v ɒ n ˈ n ɔɪ m ən/ von NOY-mən Hungarian: Neumann János Lajos December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath.