Mathwar/Personlist/Ulam Stanislaw
Ulam Stanislaw
(* April 3rd 1909 in Lemberg, Poland, † May 13th 1984 in Santa Fe, USA)
Polish mathematician who participated in the Manhattan Project and proposed the Teller–Ulam design of thermonuclear weapons. He also invented nuclear pulse propulsion and developed a number of mathematical tools in number theory, set theory, ergodic theory, and algebraic topology.
Life
He was an early proponent of using computers to perform "mathematical experiments." His most notable contribution here may have been his part in the Fermi–Pasta–Ulam experiments, an early numerical study of a dynamical system.
Another dynamical system he introduced is the well-known Fermi–Ulam model (FUM), that is a variant of Fermi's primary work on acceleration of cosmic rays, namely Fermi acceleration. FUM became over the years a prototype model for studying non-linear dynamics and coupled mappings.
In pure mathematics, he worked in set theory (including measurable cardinals and abstract measures), topology, ergodic theory, and other fields. After World War II he largely turned from rigorous pure mathematics to speculativework, posing problems and making conjectures often concerning the application of mathematics to physics and biology. His friend Gian-Carlo Rota ascribed this change to an attack of encephalitis in 1946 that Rota claimed changed Ulam's personality (though detail had never been Ulam's strong point). This suggestion is believed by many but rejected by Ulam's widow, Françoise, among others.