John von Neumann

:A separate article covers Saint John Neumann, the American priest.

Biography

The oldest of three children, von Neumann was born János Lajos Margittai Neumann (two given names, two surnames respectively) in Budapest to Neumann Miksa (Max Neumann), a lawyer who worked in a bank, and Kann Margit (Margaret Kann). Growing up in a non-practising Jewish family, János, nicknamed "Jancsi", showed incredible memory at an early age, being able to divide eight-digit numbers in his head at the age of six. At the same age, when his mother once stared aimlessly in front of him, he asked, "What are you calculating?". János was already very interested in math, the nature of numbers and the logic of the world around him. He entered the Lutheran Gymnasium in 1911. In 1913, his father purchased a title, and János acquired the Austrian mark of nobility von, becoming János von Neumann—János was anglicised to John after he took up residence in the United States in the 1930s.

Related Topics:
Budapest - Bank - Jew - Lutheran Gymnasium - 1911 - 1913 - Anglicise

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He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Budapest at the age of 23. He simultaneously learnt chemistry in Switzerland. Between 1926 and 1930 he was a private lecturer in Berlin, Germany.

Related Topics:
Ph.D. - Mathematics - University of Budapest - Chemistry - Switzerland - 1926 - 1930 - Private lecturer - Berlin - Germany

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Von Neumann was invited to Princeton University in 1930, and was one of four people selected for the first faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study, where he was a mathematics professor from its formation in 1933 until his death.

Related Topics:
Princeton University - 1930 - Institute for Advanced Study - 1933

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From 1936 to 1938 Alan Turing was a visitor at the Institute, where he completed a Ph.D. dissertation under the supervision of Alonzo Church. This visit occurred shortly after Turing's publication of his 1936 paper "On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" which involved the concepts of logical design and the universal machine. Von Neumann must have known of Turing's ideas but it is not clear whether he applied them to the design of the IAS machine ten years later.

Related Topics:
1936 - 1938 - Alan Turing - Alonzo Church - IAS machine

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In 1937, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In 1938 von Neumann was awarded the Bôcher Memorial Prize for his work in analysis.

Related Topics:
1937 - Naturalized citizen - 1938 - Bôcher Memorial Prize

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Von Neumann was married twice. His first wife was Mariette Koevesi, whom he married in 1930. Von Neumann agreed to convert to Catholicism to placate her family. The couple divorced in 1937 and Von Neumann married his second wife, Klara Dan, in 1938. Von Neumann had one child, a daughter Marina, from his first marriage.

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