Fire danger: Low
Laboratory/Northern New Mexico
United Way 2000 campaign ends Nov. 5.
(For more information, see the Sept.
21 Newsbulletin)
Nick Metropolis dead at 84
Nick Metropolis, a giant of mathematics and one of the founders of the Information Age, died Sunday evening at Sombrillo Nursing Facility in Los Alamos.
Services had not been scheduled by the time the Newsbulletin went online. Berardinelli Family Funeral Service in Santa Fe is handling arrangements for Metropolis' family.
A mathematician "enamored of logic," Metropolis came to Los Alamos as one of the original scientists of the Manhattan Project and was at the center of many of the Laboratory's early major achievements. He is best known for his contributions to the Monte Carlo mathematical method, now widely used to apply the laws of probability to science, and more generally to the field of integro-differential equations that are important in nearly every branch of the natural sciences.
Metropolis also is known for carrying forward John von Neumann's principle of the stored program to develop one of the world's first high-speed electronic digital computers, which he named the mathematical and numerical integrator and computer, or MANIAC. Metropolis often said he chose an absurd acronym to put an end to the scientific practice of attaching acronyms to everything. Ironically, the acronym not only stuck, it probably exacerbated the acronym fad.
Metropolis, a Laboratory senior fellow emeritus, until recently still could be seen working regular hours at the Laboratory and enjoying lunch with his colleagues at the Otowi Cafeteria.
"The Laboratory has lost one of its true pioneers," Director John Browne said of Metropolis. "Nick's work in mathematics and the beginnings of computer science forms the basis for nearly everything the Laboratory has done in computing and simulation science."
Born 84 years ago on June 11, Metropolis grew up on Chicago's west side. He came to the Laboratory in April 1943, after earning his doctorate (1941) and bachelor's degree (1936) in experimental physics from the University of Chicago. J. Robert Oppenheimer recruited Metropolis from Chicago, where he was collaborating with Enrico Fermi and Edward Teller on the first nuclear reactors.
His first assignment at Los Alamos was to develop equations of state for materials at high temperatures, pressures and densities.
In a 1985 interview, Metropolis remembered those early days.
"Undoubtedly, this was the most marvelous experience a scientist, young or old, could have ever imagined," he said. "All the great minds in science were assembled here or visited frequently. It was fabulous to be listening to all these great scientists. The experience was electrifying."
Since all the calculations needed to develop the first atomic bombs had to be done on electromechnical calculators, Metropolis and Richard Feynman spent some of the war years repairing calculators, and even hung out a shingle for their repair "business."
Metropolis was present at Oppenheimer's dramatic final colloquium before the Trinity test and at the detonation of Trinity on July 16, 1945. He recalled traveling through a tremendous thunderstorm on the bus to Alamogordo.
"The lightning was so intense that many of us on the bus thought that the others had not waited for us, that they had tested the bomb," Metropolis said.
After the war, he went back to Chicago as an assistant professor, but returned to the Laboratory in 1948 to form and lead the group in the Theoretical (T) Division that designed and built MANIAC in 1952 and, five years later, MANIAC II. He returned to the University of Chicago in 1957 as professor of physics and founded and directed the university's Institute for Computer Research, but came back to Los Alamos in 1965.
Metropolis became a senior fellow of the Laboratory in 1980 and in 1987 became the first Los Alamos employee honored with the title "emeritus" by the University of California.
Metropolis was honored with a day-long colloquium on "The Future of Science" held at the Laboratory on June 9, 1995.
He was awarded the Pioneer Medal by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and the American Mathematical Society and a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Theoretical Division Director Alan Bishop said, "Nick Metropolis was a true scholar and pioneer in science throughout his long and internationally renowned career at Los Alamos.
"His famous research on Monte Carlo algorithms laid the foundation for vast uses of modern computers to explore nature. He loved the beauty of science and always had time for discussions with his many colleagues, whether Nobel laureates or beginning graduate students," Bishop said. "His death is a huge loss to science at Los Alamos."
In an interview four years ago, Johndale Solem of the Theoretical (T) Division said working in the office next door to Metropolis' for more than 15 years was an inspiration.
"I suspect if you look at the yearly citations, Nick would exceed everyone else at the Laboratory and that is for work he did some time ago . . . some of his more recent papers published will be appreciated decades from now.
"The man is enamored of logic to the extent that sometimes he uses it very humorously," Solem continued. "He might say to you 'I couldn't disagree with you less.' That's very typical and it's very funny when he says it."
Solem said Metropolis showed the same enthusiasm whether he was discussing a thorny problem in quantum mechanics or Metropolis' favorite spectator sport, tennis.
"He is still a great source of inspiration. His enthusiasm is infectious," Solem said in the 1995 interview. "He retired when he was 70 and nobody noticed. He came in the next day at the same time. He's never retired."
Frank Harlow, who worked with Metropolis in the Theoretical Division for nearly 50 years, recalled the mathematician's "fascinating personality" and called him "a pioneer of the modern computer revolution.
"Nick was always engaged and ready for a technical discussion, from the Manhattan Project days up until very recently," Harlow added. "He could talk about nearly any problem with great enthusiasm and always offered valuable suggestions.
"He had such a fine sense of the joy of life that many people didn't notice because they just saw the serious scientist," Harlow said.
More information about Metropolis and his contributions to computing is available in past issues of Los Alamos Science. These articles include
--Jim Danneskiold, Steve Sandoval, John Webster
Safety expert to speak at Lab today
National safety expert and corporate speaker Charlie Morecraft is at the Laboratory today to speak about safety and alcoholism.
The Laboratory's Integrated Safety Management Program and the University of California's Northern New Mexico Office are sponsoring the talks.
Morecraft of Phoenix Safety Management Inc. speaks at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. today and 9 a.m. Thursday. The talks are in the Administration Building Auditorium and open to all Laboratory personnel and the public.
Morecraft's first presentation is called "Remember Charlie," which recounts his 1980 accident at an Exxon refinery, which caused serious burns over 45 percent of his body.
The 1:30 p.m. presentation is called "It Takes a Village to Raise an Alcoholic" and focuses on how alcohol abuse detrimentally effects safety and productivity in the workplace and can lead to a dangerous and hazardous work environment, said Fran Talley of Public Affairs (PA).
The talks will be broadcast live on LABNET and rebroadcast next week on LABNET Channel 10.
Morecraft also is scheduled to give the same talks Wednesday at Española Valley and Pojoaque high schools.
"We're proud of the safety improvements that have been made since we began a collective effort more than three years ago to refocus on and make safety a priority at this Laboratory," said Phil Thullen, the Lab's Integrated Safety Management Program director.
"But there's always room for improvement, and Charlie's message about the need to be aware of safety in everything you do, at work and at home, bears repeating. That's why the Laboratory has asked him to return," added Thullen.
For more information about Morecraft's presentations and the Lab's Integrated Safety Management Plan, write to ism@lanl.gov by e-mail. Or go to http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/ism/ or http://int.lanl.gov/orgs/ism/rooters/ on the World Wide Web.
--Steve Sandoval
Speaker discusses results of thyroid research
Los Alamos native Scott Davis, the principal investigator for the Hanford Thyroid Disease Study, funded by the Center for Disease Control and conducted by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, discusses the methodology and results of his research during a Director's Colloquium last Tuesday in the Physics Building Auditorium. The study of thyroid disease in people exposed as children to radioactive iodine released at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation between 1944 and 1957 concluded that study participants who received higher estimated doses of radiation were no more likely to develop thyroid disease than those with lower doses. Davis said the way the study was conducted "helps to define a new era of public accountability and oversight in environmental epidemiology." Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez
| On today's bulletin board | |
|---|---|
|
|
|
Lab Counsel offers guidance on dealings with investigators The Laboratory Counsel Office has issued a memorandum that provides guidance to employees who might be asked for documents or interviews by investigators with the Federal Bureau of Investigation or U.S. Attorney's Office. Click here for the memo. |
|
Security issues at the Laboratory
Past
Daily Newsbulletins | Last
week's headlines
Searchable database
of past issues
Other news sources
Reflections
| News
Releases | Dateline:
Los Alamos | DOE
Pulse
Questions? Contact the Newsbulletin at newsbulletin@lanl.gov.
LANL | Phone Book | Search | Help
L O S A L A M O S
N A T I O N A L
L A B O R A T O R Y
Operated by the University
of California for the US Department
of Energy
Newsbulletin - Copyright © UC 1996 - Disclaimer - Monday, Sept. 20
Additional
ASM classes titled, "Introduction to Plutonium Metallurgy"
are available