Nicholas Metropolis
Nicholas Metropolis | |
---|---|
Born | Nicholas Constantine Metropolis June 11, 1915 |
Died | October 17, 1999 Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States | (aged 84)
Citizenship | American |
Alma mater | University of Chicago |
Known for | |
Awards | Computer Pioneer Award (1984) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physicist, Mathematician |
Institutions | Los Alamos National Laboratory |
Nicholas Constantine Metropolis (Greek: Νικόλαος Μητρόπουλος;[1] June 11, 1915 – October 17, 1999) was a Greek-American physicist.[2]
Metropolis received his BSc (1937) and PhD in physics (1941, with
He arrived in Los Alamos in April 1943, as a member of the original staff of fifty scientists. He came back to Los Alamos in 1948 to lead the group in the Theoretical Division that designed and built the MANIAC I computer in 1952 that was modeled on the IAS machine, and the MANIAC II in 1957.
Early life and education
Nicolas Metropolis was born on June 11, 1915, in Chicago, US. Metropolis received his BSc (1936) and PhD in chemical physics (1941) at the
After World War II
After World War II, he returned to the faculty of the University of Chicago as an assistant professor. He came back to Los Alamos in 1948 to lead the group in the theoretical division that designed and built the MANIAC I computer in 1952 that was modeled on the IAS machine, and the MANIAC II in 1957. (John von Neumann thought this acronym too frivolous;[4] Metropolis claims to have chosen the name "MANIAC" in the hope of stopping the rash of such acronyms for machine names, but may have instead further stimulated such use.)[3] From 1957 to 1965 he was a full professor of physics at the University of Chicago and was the founding director of its Institute for Computer Research. In 1965 he returned to Los Alamos, where he was made a laboratory senior fellow in 1980.
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Metropolis's wartime Los Alamos National Laboratory badge photo.
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MANIAC project leader Nicholas Metropolis (standing) and the MANIAC’s chief engineer Jim Richardson in 1953.
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Paul Stein and Nicholas Metropolis play Los Alamos chess against the MANIAC, a simplified version of the game without bishops. The computer still needed about 20 minutes between moves.
Monte Carlo method
At Los Alamos in the late 1940s and early 1950s a group of researchers led by Metropolis, including
In applications of the Monte Carlo method to problems in statistical mechanics prior to the introduction of the Metropolis algorithm, a large number of random configurations of the system would be generated, the properties of interest (such as energy or density) would be computed for each configuration, and then a
Instead of choosing configurations randomly, then weighting them with exp(−E/kT), we choose configurations with a probability exp(−E/kT) and weight them evenly.
— Metropolis et al., [7]
The algorithm for generating samples from the
In recent years a controversy has arisen as to whether Metropolis actually made significant contributions to the Equation of State Calculations paper.[8]
Associations and honors
Metropolis was a member of the
The Nicholas Metropolis Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Work in Computational Physics is awarded annually by the American Physical Society.[9]
Acting career
Metropolis played the part of a scientist in the Woody Allen film Husbands and Wives (1992).[10]
Personal life
Metropolis had a son, Christopher, and two daughters, Penelope and Katharine. He was an avid skier and tennis player until his mid-seventies. He died at a nursing home in Los Alamos, New Mexico.[11]
Anecdotes
In his memoirs,
Erdős number
Metropolis has an Erdős number of 2 and he enabled Richard Feynman to have an Erdős number of 3.[13]
See also
- Stochastics
- ENIAC[14]
- Colossus computer
- Von Neumann paradox
References
- ^ ΒΑΡΒΟΓΛΗΣ, Χ (March 16, 2008). Ελληνική σφραγίδα στο πρώτο μηχανοργανωμένο πείραμα. Athens, Greece. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
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(help) - ^ Metropolis, Nicholas Constantine (1915–1999) Eric Weisstein's World of Biography
- ^ .
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "MANIAC". YouTube.
- ^ Nicolas Metropolis.The Beginning of the Monte Carlo Method. Los Alamos Science, No. 15, Page 125.
- ^ S2CID 17470931.
- ^ S2CID 1046577.
- ISSN 1070-664X.
- ^ Nicholas Metropolis Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Work in Computational Physics
- IMDb
- ^ Nick Metropolis dead at 84 Archived 2008-11-07 at the Wayback Machine. Los Alamos National Laboratory Daily News Bulletin. Oct 19, 1999.
- ^ S. M. Ulam, Adventures of a mathematician, California University press
- ^ "My Erdős Number is Five". barbecuejoe.com.
- ^ The History of Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing
External links
- 1993 Audio Interview with Nicholas Metropolis by Richard Rhodes Voices of the Manhattan Project
- Oral history interview with Nicholas C. Metropolis, Conducted by Robert Richtmyer, and Edward Teller; von Neumann's first hands-on experience with punched card equipment; his contributions to shock-fitting and the implosion problem; interactions between and comparisons of von Neumann and Enrico Fermi; and the development of Monte Carlo techniques. Other topics include: the relationship between Alan Turing and von Neumann; work on numerical methods for non-linear problems; and the ENIACcalculations done for Los Alamos.
- Francis Harlow and Nicolas Metropolis. Computing and Computers -- Weapons Simulation Leads to the Computer Era. Los Alamos Science No. 7, Page 132.
- Herbert Anderson. Metropolis, Monte Carlo and the MANIAC. Los Alamos Science No. 14, Page 69.