Abel, Niels Henrik, 207
AEC, see Atomic Energy Commission
Agnew, Harold, 192
Air Force Space Committee, 255, 256
Alembert, Jean d’, 272
Alexander, James, 70, 244
Alexandroff, Paul, 46, 66, 68
Alvarez, Luis W., 211
Anderson, Senator Clinton P., 72, 254
Archibald, Raymond C., 100
Archimedes, 104, 274, 290
Argo, Harold and Mary, 153
Aron, Françoise, see Ulam, Françoise
Aronszajn, Nachman, 36
astronomy, cosmology, 16 ff, 203 ff, 221, 255, 258, 299
Atkinson, Geoffrey S., 149
atomic bomb, 5, 142, 146, 149 f, 152, 159, 170, 188 f, 209, 211, 221 f
atomic energy, 189, 237;
see also nuclear energy
Atomic Energy Commission, 193, 210 ff, 221, 224, 228, 231, 237, 240, 243, 253;
General Advisory Committee of, 216, 220
Auerbach, Anna, see Ulam, Anna
Auerbach, Herman, 42
Auerbach, Karol, 56
automata, 32, 82, 96, 98, 241 f, 285;
see also electronic computers
Ayres, William L., 107
Bacher, Robert F., 150
Baker, Nicholas, see Bohr, Niels
ballistics, 137, 231
Banach, Stefan (1892–1945), 6, 22, 26, 31 ff, 38, 40, 49, 54 f, 65, 107, 180, 203, 245, 293, 303
Bardeen, John, 86
Bell, Eric Temple, 291
Bell, George, 259
Bellman, Richard, 131 f
Bergman, Stefan, 119
Bernouilli law of large numbers, 73
Bernstein, Dorothy, 131
Bernstein, Felix, 27
Besicovitch, Abraham, 59 f
Bethe, Hans Albrecht, 143, 147, 149 f, 152, 156, 162, 172, 191 ff, 216, 260, 263
Beyer, William, 268
Bigelow, Arthur, 229
biology, 203 ff, 242, 259 f, 300 ff
Birkhoff, Garrett, 66 f, 84, 89 f, 92
Birkhoff, George David (1884–1944), 6, 74 ff, 82, 85, 89, 90,
Birkhoff, George David (cont.) 95, 98 f, 101, 113, 117, 120 ff
Blair, Clay, 211, 236
Bloch, Felix, 161
Bochner, Salomon, 66, 69, 73
Bohr, Niels (1885–1962), 81, 161 f, 168 f, 286
Boltzmann, Ludwig, 56, 85
Bolzano, Bernard, 282
Boole, George, 144
Borel, Emile, 282
Borsuk, Karol, 40 f, 57, 68, 270
Boulder, Col., 104, 205, 250, 266, 302
Bradbury, Norris, 192, 211 f, 215, 220 f, 223, 249
brain, workings of, 12 ff, 19, 52, 78, 97, 175 f, 180 ff, 199, 236, 241 f, 244, 274, 276, 279, 284, 289, 301
Breit, Gregory, 124, 132, 150
Breton, Hal and Hattie von, 174 f, 179
Brillouin, Léon, 132
Brillouin, Stéfa, 132 f
British Mission, 228, 250
Broglie, Louis Victor de, 165
Brown, Harold, 255
Budenny, Marshall S., 15
Burks, Arthur, 241, 285
Bush, Vannevar, 251
Café Szkocka, see Scottish Cafe
Calkin, John W., 169, 177, 190, 209
Cambridge, England, 38, 58 ff
Cambridge, Mass., 29, 88, 94, 114, 116, 119, 122, 138, 205, 242
Cantor, Georg (1845–1918), 22, 29, 105, 263, 272, 282
Capablanca, José, 19
Caro, 108 f
Cartan, Elie (1869–1951), 57
Cauchy, Augustin (1789–1895), 85
Cayley, Arthur (1821–1895), 264
CERN (Centre Européen de Recherche Nucléaire), 261 f
Chadwick, Sir James, 161
Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan, 60 f
Cherwell, Lord (Frederick A. Lindemann), 229, 251
chess, 18, 23, 35, 42, 55, 120, 179, 202, 280
Churchill, Sir Winston, 229, 251
Chwistek, Leon, 29 f
Coble, Arthur B., 74
Cohen, Leon, 130
Cohen, Paul, 55, 96, 283, 285
computing machines, see electronic computers
Conant, James B., 251
Condon, Edward (1902–1973), 104, 203, 267, 301
Congressional Space Committee, 254
Conway, John B., 285
cosmology, see astronomy
Crick, Sir Francis H., 204, 241, 260, 300
Cushing, Harvey, 175
Czech, Edward, 107
Dan, Klara, see Neumann, Klari von
Danzig, J. van, 295
Darboux, Gaston (1842–1917), 33, 58
Davis, Robert R., 169
Del Sasso, Lewis A., 244
Descartes, René (1596–1650), 194, 206, 301
Dickstein, Samuel (1851–1939), 45
Doolittle, General James H., 257
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, 59, 145
Dykstra, Clarence A., 126
Dyson, Freeman, 256
Eddington, Sir Arthur S. (1882–1944), 60, 62
Eilenberg, Samuel, 66, 68, 134
Einerson, Ivar, 86
Einstein, Albert (1879–1955), 4, 6, 18, 47, 62, 73, 81, 108, 112, 157, 167, 184, 205, 223, 272, 294
Eisenhower, President Dwight D., 243, 251, 253, 255
electronic computers, 4, 13, 96, 137, 155, 181 f, 197 f, 200 f, 212 f, 215 f, 218, 225 f, 229, 241, 244, 257, 264, 284 ff;
see also automata
Eliot, Charles W., 87
Elliott, Josephine, 215
Erdös, Paul, 53, 54, 60, 131, 134 ff, 178 f, 294
Ernst, Marcin, 16 f
Estreicher, Karol, 30
Euler, Leonhard (1707–1783), 20, 58, 104
Evans, Cerda and Foster, 213
Evans, Herbert, 130
Everett, C. J., 31, 104, 124, 129 ff, 160, 195, 213 ff, 219 f, 225, 253
evolution, 205
Feinsinger, Nathan P., 125
Fejer, Leopold (1880–1959), 110
Fermat, Pierre (1601–1665), 48, 278, 291
Fermi, Enrico (1901–1954), 6, 152, 157, 161 ff, 172, 184, 191, 193, 215, 217 ff, 223, 225 ff, 233 ff, 243, 245, 257, 303
Fermi, Laura, 234, 236 f, 282
Feynman, Richard, 77, 150, 152 f, 156 ff, 162, 169, 221, 252, 297
Fisk, James B., 86, 193
fission bomb, see atomic bomb
Flanders, Donald A., 169
Ford, Kenneth, 220
Ford, Colonel Vince, 255
Foucault pendulum, 230
Fowler, Williarn A., 257
Frankel, Stanley, 153, 184 f, 213
France, Anatole, 23, 123, 224
Freud, Sigmund, 18,22
Frisch, David and Rose, 144
Frisch, Otto, 6, 162
Froman, Darol K., 219
Galois, Evariste (1811–1832), 207, 277
Gamow, Barbara, 205
Gamow, George (1904–1968), 100, 151, 202 ff, 211 f, 231 f, 266 f, 270, 294, 303
Gamow, Rho, 233
Gardner Space Committee, 256
Gardner, Trevor, 255 ff
Gaulle, General Charles de, 251
Gauss, Karl Friedrich (1777–1855), 231, 289
Getting, Ivan, 86
Goad, Walter, 259
Gödel, Kurt, 55, 76, 80, 283
Goldstein, Max, 218
Gorman, Elizabeth S., 244
Gould, Gordon, 259
Graustein, William Caspar (1888–1941), 75, 89
Greenstein, Jesse L., 257
Griggs, David, 257
Grossman, M., 57
Guerlach, Henry, 86
Gurney, Herbert W., 267
Guttierrez, J. J., 168
Hadamard, Jacques (1865–1963), 121 f
Halpern, Ada, 45
Hanfmann, George, 87
Hanley, Professor, 125, 130
Hardy, Godfrey H. (1877–1947), 58, 60, 94
Harlow, Francis, 196
Harvard, 5, 61, 71, 75, 82, 84, 86, 88 f, 91 f, 95, 100, 112 f, 116 ff, 122 f, 125, 128, 137, 147, 191, 223, 231, 260
Hausdorff, Felix, 55
Hawkins, David, 153, 158 ff, 174, 190, 214, 266, 281
Hawkins, Frances, 161
Heidegger, Martin, 264
Heisenberg, Werner, 165, 221
Henderson, Lawrence J. (1878–1942), 86, 88, 118
Herblock (Herbert Block), 251
Hermite, Charles, 58
Hilbert, David (1862–1943), 6, 45, 57, 76, 81 f, 282, 289, 291, 293, 295
Hill, Albert, 257
Hinton, Joan, 144
Hirniak, 48 f
Hitler, Adolf, 35 f, 263
Hoffmann, Frédéric de, 211, 220
Homans, George, 88
Hopf, Heinz, 57
Houtermans, Fritz, 149
Hurewicz, Witold (1904–1956), 116
Hurwitz, Henry, Jr., 145
Husserl, Edmund, 264
hydrogen bomb, 5, 109, 131, 152, 184, 195, 209 ff, 219 ff, 234, 236 f, 251
Hyers, Donald, 124, 131, 173, 186
ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile), 231;
von Neumann ICBM Committee, 241, 255, 257
implosion, 153 f
Infeld, Leopold, 61 f
Ingraham, Mark, 120, 127, 134, 144
Institut Poincaré, 57 f
Institute for Advanced Studies (Princeton), 4, 47, 66, 68 ff, 73 f, 134, 238
Janiszewski, Zygmunt (1888–1920), 25, 38
Jimenez y Flores, 56
Johnson, President Lyndon B., 251, 254 f
Kac, Mark, 43 f, 96, 255, 268 ff
Kaczmarz, Stefan, 26 f
Kárman, Theodore von (1881–1963), 70, 79, 109
Kennedy, President John F., 86, 89, 251, 253, 256 f
Kister, James, 201
Kistiakowski, George B., 143, 169, 253
Kleene, Steven, 124
Knaster, Bronislaw, 40, 44, 46
Kolmogoroff, Andrej N., 160, 295
Konopinski, Emil, 149 f, 152, 169
Kowalevski, Gerhardt, 19
Kruskal, Martin, 227
Kuratowski, Kazimir, 25 ff, 35 f, 38, 40 f, 44, 46 f, 55, 65 f, 75, 107
Lagrange, Comte Joseph de (1736–1813), 104
Langer, Lawrence, 169
Langer, William, 134, 173
language, influence of on thought, 275
Laplace, Pierre Simon de (1749–1827), 58, 159
Lauritsen, Charles C. (1892–1968), 257
Lawrence, Ernest O. (1901–1958), 161, 170, 211
Lax, Peter, 228
Lebesgue, Henri (1875–1941), 282
Lefschetz, Solomon (1884–1972), 68 f, 132
Lehmer, D. H., 117
Leibnitz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646–1716), 104
Leonard, William Ellery, 126
Leray, Jean, 68
Lespinasse, Julie de, 272
Levin, Harry, 86
Levinson, Norman, 94
Lindemann, F. A., see Cherwell, Lord
Livermore (Calif.) Laboratory, 221, 255
Loeb, Carl, Jr., 115
Lomnicki, Antoni, 27
Lomnicki, Zbigniew, 27, 39
Long, Earl, 169
Longmire, Conrad, 221
Lorentz, Hendryk A., 296
Los Alamos, 3 ff, 34, 49, 61, 94, 109, 131, 138, 141, 144 ff, 148 ff, 155 ff, 160 ff, 164 ff, 172 ff, 177, 184 ff, 188, 190 ff, 195 f, 199, 201, 206, 209, 211 ff, 220 ff, 225, 227 ff, 237, 239, 249 ff, 254 f, 259 f, 264, 266 f, 269, 293
Lotka, Alfred James, 160
Lowell, Abbott Lawrence, 88
Lowes, John Livingston, 86
Lwów, 4, 9 f, 14, 18, 23, 27, 29, 32, 35 ff, 39 ff, 43 f, 47, 50 f, 65, 67 f, 73, 93, 99, 106 ff, 116, 131, 133, 269, 282
Lwów Polytechnic Institute, 24, 26, 31, 47
McKibben, Joseph, 144
Madison, Wisconsin, 120, 122 f, 125 f, 128 ff, 136 ff, 144 f, 173, 195
Manhattan Project, 145, 172;
see also Los Alamos
MANIAC, see electronic computers
Manley, John, 249
Marcinkiewicz, Jozef (1910–1940), 92, 93
Mark, J. Carson, 171, 193, 219, 250, 266
mathematics, 25 ff, 52 ff, 65 ff, 84, 90 ff, 103 ff, 121 ff, 128, 135, 268, 273 ff
algebra, 121, 130, 282, 292
algebraic geometry, 134, 283
algorithms, 280, 293
analysis, 26, 40, 98, 268
Banach spaces, 38, 100
branching processes, 142, 153, 159, 214
category theory, 46, 85
combinatorial analysis, 134, 264, 268, 282
complexity, 298
complex numbers, 278
continuum hypothesis, 21, 29, 196
differential equations, 276
differential geometry, 291
diophantine equations, 293
ergodic theory, 85, 95, 98
Fermat’s theorem, 278, 291
Fourier series, transforms, 92, 96, 269
foundations of mathematics, 75, 268, 284
function spaces, 31, 110, 137
games, 32, 242, 268, 281 f, 284 f, 287
mathematics (continued)
group theory, 30, 129, 207
infinities, 282 f, 297
information theory, 160, 294
logic, 30, 75, 130, 183, 259, 268
mathematical physics, 148, 192, 287
measure theory, 47, 55, 65, 131, 282
multiplicative processes, 159, 213 (see also branching processes, above)
number theory, 58, 92, 96, 134, 268, 270, 291
numerical analysis, 264
probability theory, 27, 99, 195 f, 270, 282, 284 f, 294
Riemann hypothesis, 134, 279
set theory, 25, 27 ff, 40 f, 43, 65, 73, 75, 96, 105, 121, 268, 282
topology, 40 f, 43, 66 f, 103, 105, 268, 270, 282 f
transfinite numbers, 21
undecidability, 283
Matiasevic, Yuri, 285, 293
Matthias, Bernd, 254
May, Karl, 23, 229
Maxwell, James Clerk, 299
Mayer, Maria, 110
Mazur, Stanislaw, 26, 31 ff, 38, 42, 50, 53, 99, 104, 107, 129, 270
Mazurkiewicz, Stefan (1888–1945), 25, 40
memory, 12 ff, 18, 54, 179 ff, 199, 236
Menger, Karl, 56
Menkès, Zygmund, 115
meteorology, weather control, 185
Metropolis, Nicholas, 153, 169, 177, 184 f, 209, 213, 225, 228, 237
Metzger, 21
Michael, Aristotle D., 177
’’Mike” test, 220 f
Monge, Gaspard, 58
Monte Carlo method, 137, 196, 198 f, 232
Montgomery, Dean, 134
Moore, Charles N., 283
Morgan, J. P., 231
Morgenstern, Oskar, 160, 242
Morison, Samuel Eliot, 86
Morse, Marston, 73
Mycielski, Jan, 268
Nabokov, Vladimir, 14, 124, 184
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), 254
Naval Research Laboratory, 232
Neumann, John von (1903–1957), 4, 5, 35, 44, 49, 60, 65, 73, 172, 188 f, 207, 231, 252, 291, 295, 303
AEC Commissioner, 231, 237 f, 239
association with SMU, 65 ff, 100 ff, 107 ff, 136 f, 191, 193 f, 229 ff
and computers, 13, 184 f, 198 ff, 229 f, 286
in Europe, 23, 66 ff, 107 ff
illness and death, 238 ff
Los Alamos connection, 141 ff, 146 f, 153 f, 161, 162, 166 f, 222 ff
at Princeton, 4, 65 f, 69 ff, 75 ff, 95 ff
See also automata, electronic computers, ICBM
Neumann, Klari von, 110, 191, 193, 213, 229, 239 f, 243
Neumann, Marietta von, 69, 102, 109, 113
Neumann, Marina von, 66, 69
Newton, Isaac (1642–1726), 16, 59, 104, 167, 205
Nikliborc, Wladislaw, 26, 35, 37, 48
Nikodym, Oton, 32
Noether, Emmy, 46
Novikoff, Peter S., 285
nuclear energy, 224, 252, 254
nuclear propulsion, 252, 255;
see also Orion; Project Rover
Oppenheimer, J. Robert (1904–1968), 147, 151 ff, 158, 162, 170, 192, 211, 217, 223 f, 234, 237, 251
Orion space vehicle, 253, 256
Orlicz, Wladislaw, 26
Ouspenski, James B., 159
Oxtoby, John, 84 ff
Paley, Raymond, 93
Pasta, John, 226 ff, 257
Pauli, Wolfgang, 45, 221, 261
Perlman, Selig, 125
Perrin, Francis, 251
Peterson, Donald, 259
physics, 30, 81, 98, 104, 112, 132, 147 ff, 162, 164 ff, 189, 203 ff, 216, 221, 226, 233, 235, 250, 261, 286, 296 ff
aerodynamics, 136 f
astrophysics, 258
complementarity, 168
constants, 148, 169, 204, 205
electromagnetism, 30, 279, 299
elementary particles, 112, 205, 235, 261, 296
entropy, 294, 298
hydrodynamics, 136 f, 148, 185, 196, 279
isotopes, 233
mechanics, 99, 137, 144, 147 f, 257
mesons, 235
neutrons, 148, 153, 159, 177, 197, 213
partons, 297
quantum theory, 30, 67, 77, 81, 92, 97 f, 112, 132, 148, 165 ff, 205, 245, 251, 262, 279, 287, 295, 299 f
relativity, 18, 37, 81, 105, 112, 164, 221, 295 f
statistical mechanics, 31, 132
vacuum, polarization of, 157
Pilsudski, Jozef, 15
Placzek, George, 158, 192
Plateau, Joseph, 113
Plato, 175, 237
Plesch, Arpad, 108
Plesch, Janos, 108, 239
Poincaré, Henri (1854–1912), 21, 25, 45, 62, 82, 98, 180, 228, 275, 289, 291, 295
Polya, George, 60, 180
Porter, Keith, 302
Possel, René de, 58
Princeton, 47, 49, 62, 65 ff, 72 ff, 83, 102, 104, 107, 110, 113, 122, 132, 135, 141, 202, 213, 225, 229, 244
Project Rover, 250, 252, 254;
see also nuclear propulsion
Proust, Marcel, 182
Puck, Theodore, 259 f
Quine, Willard, 87
Rabi, Isaac Isidore, 111, 161, 215, 223, 239
radiation, 148, 177, 216, 259, 261, 267
Rainey, Rupert, 175
Rarita, William, 152
Richardson, James, 100
Richardson, James H., 225
Richtmyer, Robert, 186, 192 f, 263, 266
Riemann, Bernhard, 295
Ries, Minna, 47
Riesz, Fredrick, 110
rocket propulsion systems, 254 ff;
see also Orion; Project Rover
Roeberg, Jane, 153
Rosen, Henryk, 108
Rosenbluth, Marshall, 220
Rota, Gian-Carlo, 72, 104, 129, 207, 263 ff, 268, 291
Rubinowicz, Wojciech, 31
Russell, Bertrand, 118, 137
Ruziewicz, Stanislaw, 22, 40
Samuelson, Paul, 86
Schauder, Juliusz (1896–1943), 39, 67
Scherr, Ruben, 168
Schmidt, Wolfgang, 268
Schouten, Jan A., 119
Schrandt, Robert, 201
Schreier, Jozef, 43, 58, 78, 82
Schriever, General Bernard A., 255
Schrödinger, Erwin, 165
Scottish Book, The, 50 f, 107
Scottish Cafe, 33, 35, 49, 93, 107
Segré, Emilio, 162, 164
Selberg, Atle, 244
Serber, Robert, 152
Shannon, Claude, 160, 294
Shapley, Harlow, 124
Shepley, James R., 211, 236
Sierpinski, Waclaw (1882–1969), 21, 25, 40, 44
Smoluchowski, Marian, 294
Society of Fellows (Harvard), 82, 84 ff, 88 f, 100, 113, 118
Socrates, 175, 237
Sommerfeld, Arnold, 30
space vehicles and space exploration, 252 ff
space-time, 183 f, 279, 295, 297
Stebbins, Joel, 144 f, 126, 142
Stein, Myron, 201
Stein, Paul, 201 f
Steinhaus, Hugo (1887–1972), 21 f 29, 32, 35, 41 ff, 50 f, 58, 96, 107, 262, 268 f
Sternbach, Ludwig, 43
Stone, Harlan, 92
Stone, Marshall, 30, 66 f, 91
Stozek, Wlodzimierz, 27, 35 ff, 47 f, 65
Strauss, Admiral Lewis, 210, 221, 223, 237 f, 243
“super,” the, see hydrogen bomb
Sylvester, James J., 264
Szilard, Leo, 294
Tamarkin, Jacob David, 94, 99 f, 116
Tarski, Alfred, 29 f, 40, 114, 119, 122
Taschek, Richard, 144
Taylor, Sir Geoffrey, 144
Taylor, Theodore, 221, 256
Teller, Edward, 146 ff, 162, 164, 169, 172, 184 ff, 193, 202, 209 ff, 219 ff, 223, 231, 235 ff, 239, 251, 253, 257
Test Ban Treaty, 251
thermonuclear reactions, 149, 152, 211 ff, 219 ff;
see also hydrogen bomb
thinking process, 22, 178, 180, 184, 289
Thomson, Sir Joseph John, 60
Thucydides, 102, 244
Toll, John, 220
Townes, Charles, 255
Truman, President Harry S., 210 f, 253
Tuck, James, 228 f, 259
Turkevitch, Anthony, 210
Twining Committee, 256
UFO (unidentified flying objects), 301 f
Uhlenbeck, George E., 269
Ulam, Adam (brother), 113 ff, 118, 191
— 329 -
Ulam, Andrzej (cousin), 72, 115
Ulam, Anna (mother), 9, 15, 113
Ulam, Claire (daughter), 161, 174, 230, 235, 239, 244
Ulam, Françoise (Aron), 44, 125, 133, 145, 161, 174 ff, 178, 189, 190, 215, 230, 239, 244, 260, 262, 269, 270, 272
Ulam, Jozef (father), 9 ff, 18 ff, 113 f
Ulam, Michael(uncle), 56 f, 108
Ulam, S. M.
birth, 9
brain illness, 174 ff
in Cambridge, England, 58 ff
Colorado, University of, 266 ff
doctor’s degree, 47
Los Alamos, 141–171, 188–208, 209–224, 249-265
marriage, 125
mathematical curiosity, early, 20 ff
“self-portrait,” 271 f
U.S. citizenship, 137 f
World War II, outbreak of, 116
Ulam, Szymon (uncle), 16, 114
University of Colorado, 91, 161, 260
University of Southern California (USC), 173 f, 179, 186
University of Wisconsin, 62, 120, 123, 125
Vassilief, Alexander, 124
Veblen, Oswald, 73 f, 115, 283
Veblen, Thorstein, 74
Verne, Jules, 5, 23, 255, 229
Vienna, 10 f, 56 f, 261
Virgil, 111
Vitali, G., 92
Voltaire, 105, 262
Von Neumann, John, see Neumann, John von
Walden, William, 201
Wang, Hao, 285
Watson, James D., 241, 260, 300
Wavre, Roland, 45 f
Weierstrass, Karl, 55, 282
Weil, André, 133
Weisskopf, Victor F., 152, 162, 168 f, 172, 191, 260 ff, 270
Weizsäcker, Carl Friedrich von, 216
Wells, H. G., 5, 23
Wells, Mark, 201
Weyl, Hermann (1885–1955), 30, 72, 121, 291
Wheeler, John, 215, 220 f
Whitehead, Alfred North (1861–1947), 29, 86, 118 f, 138, 285
Whitehead, Mrs. A. N., 30, 118
Whitney, Hassler, 91
Whyburn, Gordon T., 107
Wiener, Norbert (1894–1964), 45, 91 ff, 109, 137, 160, 294
Wiesner, Jerome, 253 ff, 257
Wigner, Eugene, 112, 124, 160, 277
Woodward, Robert B., 86
Wundheiler, Alexander, 119
Yang, Chen Ning, 294
Young, Lawrence C., 62
Zabuski, Norman, J., 228
Zawirski, Zygmund, 21, 23, 65
Zygmund, Antoni, 38, 93, 96, 270