Adventures of a mathematician / S.M. Ulam.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ulam, Stanislaw M., author.

Contributor:

Hirsch, Daniel O., writer of preface.

Mathews, William G., writer of preface.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ulam, Stanislaw M.

Mathematics--Popular works.

Mathematics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (384 p.)

Place of Publication:

[Berkeley] University of California Press 1991

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The true story that inspired the 2020 film. The autobiography of mathematician Stanislaw Ulam, one of the great scientific minds of the twentieth century, tells a story rich with amazingly prophetic speculations and peppered with lively anecdotes. As a member of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1944 on, Ulam helped to precipitate some of the most dramatic changes of the postwar world. He was among the first to use and advocate computers for scientific research, originated ideas for the nuclear propulsion of space vehicles, and made fundamental contributions to many of today's most challenging mathematical projects. With his wide-ranging interests, Ulam never emphasized the importance of his contributions to the research that resulted in the hydrogen bomb. Now Daniel Hirsch and William Mathews reveal the true story of Ulam's pivotal role in the making of the "Super," in their historical introduction to this behind-the-scenes look at the minds and ideas that ushered in the nuclear age. An epilogue by Françoise Ulam and Jan Mycielski sheds new light on Ulam's character and mathematical originality.

Contents:

pt. 1. Becoming a mathematician in Poland. Childhood

Student years

Travels abroad

pt. 2. A working mathematician in America. Princeton days

Harvard years

Transition and crisis

The University of Wisconsin

pt. 3. Life among the physicists. Los Alamos

Southern California

Back at Los Alamos

The "super"

The death of two pioneers

pt. 4. The past fifteen years. Government science

Professor again

Random refections.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

"Preface to the 1991 edition by William G. Mathews and Daniel O. Hirsch. Note on S.M. Ulam's mathematics by Jan Mycielski. Postcript by Françoise Ulam."

ISBN:

0-520-91055-9

0-585-18200-0