One of the most talented Hungarian scientists died 60 years ago

Budapest (MTI) – John von Neumann was born on 28 December 1903. He was just six years old when he was able to divide two, six-digit numbers in his head, and he conversed with his father in Ancient Greek. He published his first study at the age of eighteen. In Zurich, he obtained his chemical engineer degree while he was studying Mathematics in Budapest and Berlin, and  received his PhD degree with his dissertation on set theory. After that, he researched operation theory and quantum physics in Göttingen, then he described the notion of pure quantum state.

In 1930, he was invited to teach at Princeton. He made his mark on every field of Mathematics. He was the one who described the Ergodic theory. In the late 30s, while researching bounded operators (also called Von Neumann algebra), he created the continuous geometry. He laid the mathematic foundations for Heisenberg’s matrix mechanics theory and Schrödinger’s wave mechanics theory, MTI reported.

Since 1940, his attention turned to applied researches. He introduced numerical meteorology. He was an advisor for the American army. He analysed the explosion wave sound and the firing tables in the nuclear weapon development programme.

His work of game theory is significant. He published his first study in relation to game theory in 1928, but he only summed up his researches in 1944 in a book which he wrote together with Oskar Morgenstern, titled The Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour, which is considered as a standard work today. By analysing the decision making and cooperation opportunities of two players, Neumann and Morgenstern proved that an optimal strategy for both parties does exist. This principle is used in economy, social and military science, pedagogy, and so on.