By: Dani Hoover
ESE 251, Professor Rodin
11/10/2009

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

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

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Received his PhD in mathematics in 1933, under his mentor, Stefan Banach
Friendship with John von Neumann
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Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton
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Harvard University (commuted from Poland to U.S.)
Manhattan Project at Los Alamos
Encephalitis in 1946
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Some believe the disease changed his personality
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Turned from pure mathematics to speculative and imaginative work
His wife disagrees

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“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…”

Nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy, (the Jahn-Teller and Renner-Teller effects), and surface physics
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Hungarian-American theoretical physicist
“Father of the Hydrogen
Bomb”
Manhattan Project
Strong advocate for nuclear weapons
Established the Lawrence
Livermore Laboratory for thermonuclear research

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He was taught German and Hungarian at the same time, but did not speak until he was 3
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“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

Worked mostly in Quantum Mechanics, magic numbers and the shell model
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German-born American theoretical physicist
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 for the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus (2 nd female to win after
Marie Curie)
Two-Photon absorption
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Unit is named the
Geoppert-Mayer (GM) unit

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Originally wanted to be a mathematician, but quantum mechanics was new and exciting
She was the 7 th 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)

Also worked in game theory and with recursive functions
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Mathematician born in St. Louis, MO
Hilbert’s Tenth
Problem and
Diophantine
Equations
Decision Problems
1975-1 st woman elected to the National
Academy of Sciences

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

One of the leading scholars in common pool resources and how humans interact with ecosystems.
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American Political
Scientist
2009 Nobel Laureate in Economics (1 st woman to win the prize in this category)
Member of the United
States National
Academy of Sciences

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Ostrom received a Bachelor’s Degree from
UCLA and also went to UCLA for graduate school
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“My courses were so fascinating that I decided to quit my fulltime job and go back…at a time when women didn't go to graduate school.”
Police Project at Indiana University
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Used theoretical models and innovative research to discover that a large centralized police station is not the most efficient for a city

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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

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 http://www-history.mcs.standrews.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/