John von Neumann

Born

December 28, 1903

Died

February 8, 1957 (aged 53)

Known as

mathematician, computer scientist, physicist, economist, university teacher, consultant

John von Neumann was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer. Von Neumann had perhaps the widest breadth of any mathematician of his time, integrating pure and applied sciences and making major contributions to many fields, including mathematics, physics, economics, computing, and statistics. He was a pioneer in building the mathematical framework of quantum physics, in the development of functional analysis, and in game theory, introducing or codifying concepts including cellular automata, the universal constructor and the digital computer. His analysis of the structure of self-replication preceded the discovery of the structure of DNA.

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