George E. Kimball

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For the author, see George Edward Kimball.

George E. Kimball
Born(1906-07-12)July 12, 1906
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedDecember 6, 1967 (1967-12-07) (aged 61)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materPrinceton University
Spouse
Alice Thurston Hunter
​
​
(m. 1936)​
Children4
Scientific career
Fieldsquantum chemistry

George Elbert Kimball (July 12, 1906 – December 6, 1967) was an American professor of quantum chemistry, and a pioneer of operations research algorithms during World War II.

Early life

George E. Kimball was born to Arthur G. Kimball in Chicago in 1906 and he grew up in New Britain, Connecticut.[1][2] He was the oldest of three children in a middle-class family; his younger brother, Penn Kimball, also became a professor at Columbia, in journalism.[1][3][4] His interest in chemistry was due to his high school chemistry teacher. He attended New Britain High School and graduated in 1923.[2] He spent a year at Phillips Exeter Academy and in 1924 he enrolled at Princeton University. Apparently his father was of the opinion that there were already too many graduates of Yale University in Connecticut. Kimball later claimed that he chose the chemistry program at Princeton because it allowed him to study not only chemistry, but also an equal amount of physics and mathematics, which were also of interest to him. Kimball received his bachelor's degree in 1928, and at that time his main interest was quantum chemistry, which at that time was a field that was still in its infancy, following significant theoretical breakthroughs in quantum mechanics in 1925.

He returned to Princeton's chemistry department to be a graduate student on a graduate fellowship and worked under Hugh Taylor. Kimball's doctoral thesis was on quantum mechanics of the recombination of hydrogen atoms, and he received his Ph.D. in 1932.

Personal life

George E. Kimball married chemist Alice Thurston Hunter, whom he met at MIT, on June 22, 1936.[5] Together, they had four children.[2]

Work

Early work (1932–1942)

After having missed out on a

Julius Stratton
.

During the summer of 1935, Kimball returned to Princeton, to work with

surface effects. He also developed and taught courses in quantum chemistry, and supervised graduate student research. In 1941 he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society.[7] The book Quantum Chemistry written by Kimball, Henry Eyring and John Walter
, was begun around 1934 and published in 1944. Although periodically occupied with other tasks from 1942, he became a full professor of chemistry at Columbia in 1947 and remained there until 1956.

World War II work (1942–1945)

In 1942, after the US had entered World War II and was faced with the problem of

Patrick Blackett and other scientists. During the war, there was liaison between US and UK analysts in service of RAF Coastal Command
.

The ORG's work also extended into the South Atlantic and into the

National Academy of Sciences.[4]

Post-war work(1945–1967)

After World War II and Methods of Operations Research, Kimball returned to Columbia and resumed his research and teaching in

Operations Research Society of America
(ORSA) in 1952 and was a member of ORSA's first council. He was elected ORSA's president in 1964.

In the 1950s, Kimball started to work part-time for the

Vice President
.

Kimball was a Unitarian Universalist[9] and he did service as trustee and president of the Unitarian congregation in Hackensack, New Jersey.

George E. Kimball Medal

Following the death of George E. Kimball, ORSA instituted a medal in his honor,[3] which is awarded annually. It was first awarded in 1974, when Thomas Caywood, Philip M. Morse and George Shortley were awarded.

After ORSA merged with The Institute for Management Science (TIMS) to form the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the George E. Kimball Medal has been awarded by INFORMS.[10]

Death

During his last years, Kimball suffered from

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on business.[4][2]

References

  1. ^ a b "Who was George E. Kimball". Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
  2. ^
    Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4419-6280-5
    .
  4. ^ a b c d Kimball, George E. (1973). "George Elbert Kimball: Operations Research Innovator, 1906-1967". harvardsquarelibrary.org. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
  5. Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  6. ^ While a scientist on the border between chemistry and physics, at this time he seems to have been relatively unknown to the physics community.
  7. ^ "APS Fellow Archive".
  8. ^ Methods of Operations Research by Morse and Kimball has been reprinted by the Military Operations Research Society in the "MORS Heritage Series" and is therefore still available.
  9. ^ Unitarian Universalism: Introduction
  10. ^ "Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS): George E. Kimball Medal". Archived from the original on September 23, 2006. Retrieved November 17, 2007.

External links

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