In 1940 he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. He worked with the Navy Bureau of Ordnance and consulted with the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory during and after World War II. In the early 1950s he was part of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and was appointed to the Atomic Energy Commission in 1955.
He accepted his celebrity status and lived a gregarious lifestyle. His sense of humor was always evident. As reported by the Bellevue Community College Science Division, citing from "The Legend of John von Neumann" by P. Halmos (American Mathematical Monthly, April, 1973, pages 382-394), and "The Legacy of John von Neumann" by Barry Cipra (SIAM News, Sept., 1988, p. 28, 22-23):
His driving (in)ability is a part of this legend. He reported one accident this way: "I was proceeding down the road. The trees on the right were passing me in orderly fashion at 60 miles per hour. Suddenly one of them stepped in my path."
John von Neumann died of cancer February 8, 1957. He is considered by many to have been one of the great minds of the twentieth century.
Honors and Awards
- D.Sc. (Hon), Princeton University, 1947
- Medal for Merit (Presidential Award), 1947
- Distinguished Civilian Service Award, 1947
- D.Sc. (Hon), University of Pennsylvania, 1950
- D.Sc. (Hon), Harvard University, 1950
- D.Sc. (Hon), University of Istanbul, 1952
- D.Sc. (Hon), Case Institute of Technology, 1952
- D.Sc. (Hon), University of Maryland, 1952
- D.Sc. (Hon), Institute of Polytechnics, Munich, 1953
- Medal of Freedom (Presidential Award), 1956
- Albert Einstein Commemorative Award, 1956
- Enrico Fermi Award, 1956
- Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Member, Academiz Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Lima, Peru
- Member, Acamedia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome, Italy; Member, National Academy of Sciences
- Member, Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and Letters, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Member, Information Processing Hall of Fame, Infomart, Dallas TX, 1985
Sources
http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/VonNeumann.html
http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Von_Neumann.html
http://www.dam.brown.edu/people/yiannis/neuman.html
http://www.santafe.edu/~shalizi/notebooks/von-neumann.html
http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/neumann.htm
http://www.scidiv.bcc.ctc.edu/Math/vonNeumann.html
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