Arianna W. Rosenbluth

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Arianna W. Rosenbluth
Metropolis algorithm
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1951; div. 1978)​
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics, computer science
InstitutionsStanford University
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Doctoral advisorJohn Hasbrouck Van Vleck

Arianna Wright Rosenbluth (September 15, 1927 – December 28, 2020) was an American physicist who contributed to the development of the Metropolis–Hastings algorithm. She wrote the first full implementation of the Markov chain Monte Carlo method.

Early life and education

Arianna Rosenbluth was born in

Houston, Texas, on September 15, 1927. She attended university at the Rice Institute, now Rice University, where she received a Bachelor of Science in 1946.[1] During her college days, she fenced competitively and won both the Texas women's championship in foil as well as the Houston men's championship.[2] She qualified for the Olympics, but was unable to compete because the 1944 Summer Olympics were cancelled due to World War II and she could not afford to travel to the 1948 games in London.[3]

Rosenbluth obtained her

P.W. Anderson and the philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn.[5] She completed her thesis, entitled Some Aspects of Paramagnetic Relaxation, in 1949 at the age of 22.[6]

Career

After completing her thesis Rosenbluth won an Atomic Energy Commission postdoctoral fellowship to Stanford University which she attended before moving to a staff position at Los Alamos National Laboratory where her research focused on atomic bomb development and statistical mechanics.

Along with

Marshall N. Rosenbluth, Augusta H. Teller, and Edward Teller to develop the first Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm, in particular the prototypical Metropolis–Hastings algorithm, in the seminal paper Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines.[9] In close collaboration with her husband Marshall, she developed the implementation of the algorithm for the MANIAC I hardware, making her the first person to ever implement the Markov chain Monte Carlo method.[7][8][10]

Over the next few years Rosenbluth and Marshall applied the method to novel studies of statistical mechanical systems, including three-dimensional hard spheres and two-dimensional Lennard-Jones molecules and two and three-dimensional molecular chains.[11][12]

After the birth of her first child, Rosenbluth left research to focus on raising her family.

Personal life

While at Stanford University she met

Los Angeles
area. She kept her married name after the divorce.

Rosenbluth died from complications of COVID-19 in the greater Los Angeles area on December 28, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in California. She was 93.[13]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-3-030-01803-0
    . Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  2. ^ Holmes, Ann, "Whirling Arcs of Steel!" The Houston Chronicle, July 21, 1946.
  3. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2021-02-10.
  4. ^ "Harvard Physics PhD Theses, 1873–1953" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-09-13. Retrieved 2017-06-27.
  5. ^ "Philip W. Anderson – Session I". American Institute of Physics Oral History Interviews. Oral History Interviews. 9 December 2014.
  6. ^ a b "University of Texas Marshall Nicholas Rosenbluth February 5, 1927–September 28, 2003". Archived from the original on 2017-08-12. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  7. ^
    doi:10.1063/1.1632112
    .
  8. ^ a b "Marshall Rosenbluth - Session I". www.aip.org. 27 March 2015. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
  9. S2CID 1046577
    .
  10. ISSN 1070-664X
    .
  11. doi:10.1063/1.1740207
    .
  12. doi:10.1063/1.1741967
    .
  13. ^ Hafner, Katie (February 9, 2021). "Arianna Rosenbluth Dies at 93; Pioneering Figure in Data Science". The New York Times. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
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