THE LIVES OF 5 GREAT SCHOLARS

By: Dani HooverESE 251, Professor Rodin

11/10/2009

Outline

Stanislaw Ulam Edward Teller Maria Goeppert-Mayer Julia Robinson Elinor Ostrom

Stanislaw Ulam (1909-1984)

Polish Mathematician Worked on the Hydrogen

bomb at Los Alamos with Edward Teller

Devised the Monte-Carlo Method

Proposed the Orion plan for nuclear propulsion of space vehicles with JC Everett

Teller-Ulam Configuration which led to thermonuclear weapons

Worked in number theory, set theory, algebraic topology, mathematical physics, and other areas.

More about Ulam

Received his PhD in mathematics in 1933, under his mentor, Stefan Banach

Friendship with John von Neumann Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton Harvard University (commuted from Poland to

U.S.) Manhattan Project at Los Alamos

Encephalitis in 1946 Some believe the disease changed his

personality Turned from pure mathematics to speculative

and imaginative work His wife disagrees

What Others Say About Ulam

“Ulam ... is almost exculsively a talking man, a verbal person. When not thinking ... what he enjoys most is to talk, to discuss, to argue, to converse, with friends and colleagues. Relying on his phenomenal memory, he carries everything in his head. ...”

“The physical act of taking pen to paper has always been painful for him. His mind and his eyes are the obstacles. His mind, because it works much faster than his fingers…”

Edward Teller (1908-2003) Hungarian-American

theoretical physicist “Father of the

Hydrogen Bomb” Manhattan Project Strong advocate for

nuclear weapons Established the

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory for thermonuclear research

Nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy, (the Jahn-Teller and Renner-Teller effects), and surface physics

Facts About Teller He was taught German and Hungarian at the same

time, but did not speak until he was 3 “I'm sure I must have been awfully confused in

what all these people talked about, using different sounds for the same objects. I did not catch on. The one thing with which I felt familiar were numbers. There, at least, was something that hung together.”

In Munich, in 1928, Teller lost his right foot in a car accident

Studied and worked with Werner Heisenberg at the University of Gottingen, Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi, and in Berkeley with J. Robert Oppenheimer

Teller was ostracized by much of the scientific community after a controversial testimony about Robert Oppenheimer in 1954

Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1906-1972)

German-born American theoretical physicist

Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 for the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus (2nd female to win after Marie Curie)

Two-Photon absorption Unit is named the

Geoppert-Mayer (GM) unit

Worked mostly in Quantum Mechanics, magic numbers and the shell model

More about Mayer Originally wanted to be a mathematician, but

quantum mechanics was new and exciting She was the 7th generation of university

professors on her father’s side Worked with and studied under many notable

names including: Max Born, James Franck, Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus, Eugene Wigner, Hans Jensen, and Edward Teller

Had difficulty finding jobs because of sexism and nepotism – the University of Chicago was the first place to welcome her with open arms

"Winning the prize wasn't half as exciting as doing the work.“ (referring to the Nobel Prize)

Julia Robinson (1919-1985)

Mathematician born in St. Louis, MO

Hilbert’s Tenth Problem and Diophantine Equations

Decision Problems 1975-1st woman

elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Also worked in game theory and with recursive functions

Additional Info About Robinson

Had to be quarantined when suffering from scarlet fever and rheumatic fever After her recovery, she completed 5th-8th grade in one

year working 3 mornings a week In 1933 at San Diego High School, she was the

only female in her math and physics classes Went to San Diego State College with the aim of

becoming a math teacher “What I really am is a mathematician. Rather than

being remembered as the first woman this or that, I would prefer to be remembered, as a mathematician should, simply for the theorems I have proved and the problems I have solved.”

Elinor Ostrom (Born-1933)

American Political Scientist

2009 Nobel Laureate in Economics (1st woman to win the prize in this category)

Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences

One of the leading scholars in common pool resources and how humans interact with ecosystems.

Ostrom’s Education and Work

Ostrom received a Bachelor’s Degree from UCLA and also went to UCLA for graduate school “My courses were so fascinating that I decided to quit

my full-time job and go back…at a time when women didn't go to graduate school.”

Police Project at Indiana University Used theoretical models and innovative

research to discover that a large centralized police station is not the most efficient for a city

Other Info About Ostrom

Ostrom’s High School put her on the debate team to help overcome her stuttering

Indiana University did not have any nepotism rules so Ostrom was able to work there with her husband

Her Nobel Prize work involved showing how common pool resources can be managed successfully by the people who use them rather than the government or a private company

THE END

Sources

http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Robinson_Julia.html

http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Ulam.html

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tel0pro-1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Goeppert-Mayer http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1748208/