Famous Mathematicians and
Scientists
EUGENE WIGNER
DENNIS GABOR
GEORGE DANTZIG
RICHARD BELLMAN
JOSEPH-LOUIS LAGRANGE
BY: ALEXANDRA SILVA
Eugene
Wigner
 Born in Budapest, Hungary
 At age 11, Wigner was sent to the Austrian
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(1902-1995)
mountains for several weeks where he first
became interested in mathematics.
Studied chemical engineering at Technische
Hochshule in Berlin
Soon became interested in quantum
mechanics, and became a professor at
Princeton
He later left Princeton and worked on the
Manhattan Project
Throughout the rest of his life, Wigner
continued to teach and conduct his own
research in mathematics, physics, and later
philosophy.
Eugene Wigner: Accomplishments
 Known for his work in physics:
Wigner D-Matrix for angular momentum
 Wigner–Eckart theorem in quantum mechanics
 Wigner quasi-probability distribution
Wigner Semicircle Distribution in mathematics
Wrote "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural
Sciences” which discuses the relationships between mathematics and
physics
Wigner witnessed the first nuclear reactor go critical in 1942.
In 1962, won Nobel Prize in Physics
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 Fun Fact: In 1950, Eugene Wigner received an honorary degree in
science from Wash.U.
Dennis
Gabor
(1900-1979)
 Born in Budapest, Hungary
 First became interested in physics at age
15
 Originally wanted to study physics, but
got a degree in electrical engineering
instead at Technische Hochschule in
Berlin
 Fleeing the Nazis, Gabor left Germany in
1933 and went to England where he
worked in several laboratories doing
applied physics.
 Later became a professor at the Imperial
College of Science and Technology in
London teaching applied physics
Dennis Gabor: Accomplishments
 Made several inventions including a high pressure
quartz mercury lamp which was later used in street
lamps
 Gabor developed wavefront reconstruction, later
known as holography. It took more than 10 years after
Gabor developed holography for it’s practical
applications to be realized (with the invention of the
laser in 1964).
 Won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1971
George
Dantzig
(1914-2005)
 Born in Portland, Oregon
 Son of Tobias Dantzig, a Russian
mathematician
 Received degrees in mathematics and
physics from the University of Maryland,
the University of Michigan, and UC
Berkeley
 Briefly joined the air force during World
War II, but later returned to Berkeley
where he completed his Ph.D.
 Later became a professor at UC Berkeley
and Stanford teaching Operations
Research
George Dantzig: Accomplishments
 Known as the primary founder of Linear Programming (other founders
were von Neumann and Kantorovich)
 Developed the idea of linear programming during his time in the Air
Force after the Air Force challenged him to find a way mechanize the
planning process of daily operations
 Also known for creating the Simplex Method
 Other accomplishments include work in nonlinear programming,
sensitivity analysis, large-scale optimization, and programming under
uncertainty
 Won the National Medal of science in 1975
 Fun Fact: The story about Dantzig arriving late to class and then solving
the previously unsolvable problems has become a common legendary
story and even inspired the movie “Good Will Hunting.”
Richard
Bellman
 Born in Brooklyn, New York
 Earned a degree in Mathematics from
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(1920-1984)
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Brooklyn College, and a masters degree
from the University of WisconsinMadison
Served in the US Army in a Theoretical
Physics Division group called Los Alamos
In 1942, while doing his doctoral research,
Bellman published his first major work,
the "Stability Theory of Differential
Equations”
Taught at Princeton for a few years and
then worked at the Rand Corporation in
California where he developed dynamic
programming.
Later taught at USC teaching Medicine,
Mathematics, and Electrical Engineering
Richard Bellman: Accomplishments
 Invented dynamic programming, also known as the Bellman
Equation.
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Dynamic programming and the Bellman Equation are used to make
complex problems more simple by breaking them down into small parts.
Used in Control Theory and Economic Theory
 Coined the term “Curse of Dimensionality” which refers to the
“problem caused by the exponential increase in volume
associated with adding extra dimensions to a (mathematical)
space.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_dimensionality
 In 1979, won the IEEE medal of honor for his work in
dynamic programming
 Fun Fact: After serving in the army, earned Ph.D. in record
time from Princeton (3 months)
 Born in Italy, but considered to be
Joseph-Louis
Lagrange
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(1736-1813)
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French
Educated at the College of Turin in Italy
First became interested in mathematics
at age 17 after reading a paper by
Edmund Halley
Became a professor of the Royal
Artillery School in Turin in 1755 after
impressing Euler with his mathematical
work
Later went on to work at the Berlin
Academy, replacing Euler in 1766
After the death of his wife, moved to
Paris in 1787 to become a member of
the Académie des Sciences
Became the first professor of analysis in
the Ecole Polytechnique
Joseph-Louis Lagrange: Accomplishments
 Work in Mathematics
 Made several discoveries in the calculus of variations and is considered one its
creators
 Developed equations for extrema of functionals as well as the idea of Lagrange
Multipliers
 Invented the method of variation of parameters for solving differential equations
 Work in Physics
 Contributions to the theory of vibrations of string and the propagation of sound
 Studied the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn
 Also worked on energy formulas in mechanics sometimes known as Lagrangian
mechanics
 While in Paris, worked on the metric system standardizing weights
and measures
 In 1808, was named by Napoleon to the Legion of Honour and
Court of the Empire
Works Cited
 Eugene Wigner
 http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1963/wigner-bio.html
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Wigner
 http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/wigner.html
 Dennis Gabor
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Gabor
 http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1971/gabor-autobio.html
 George Dantzig
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dantzig
 http://www.stanford.edu/group/SOL/dantzig.html
 Richard Bellman
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_E._Bellman
 http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/biography/bellman.html
 http://www-math.cudenver.edu/~wcherowi/courses/m4010/s05/sanabria.pdf
 Joseph-Louis LaGrange
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_louis_lagrange
 http://www2.stetson.edu/~efriedma/periodictable/html/Lr.html