(noi´män) (KEY) , 1903–57, American mathematician, b.
Hungary, Ph.D. Univ. of Budapest, 1926. He came to the United States in
1930 and was naturalized in 1937. He taught (1930–33) at Princeton and
after 1933 was associated with the Institute for Advanced Study. In 1954
he was appointed a member of the Atomic Energy Commission. A founder of
the mathematical theory of games (see games, theory of),
he also made fundamental contributions to quantum theory and to the
development of the atomic bomb. He was a leader in the design and
development of high-speed electronic computers; his development of
maniac—an acronym for mathematical analyzer,
numerical integrator, and computer—enabled the
United States to produce and test (1952) the world’s first hydrogen bomb.
With Oskar Morgernstern he wrote Theory of Games and Economic
Behavior (1944, rev. ed. 1953). Von Neumann’s other writings include
Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (1926, tr. 1955),
Computer and the Brain (1958), and Theory of Self-reproducing
Automata (ed. by A. W. Burks, pub. posthumously, 1966).
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