The Duties of John von Neumann's Assistant in the 1930s (2020)
10 days ago
- #Mathematics
- #History of Science
- #John von Neumann
- Edgar R. Lorch, a 26-year-old mathematician, secured a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard in 1933 and later applied to work under John von Neumann at Princeton.
- Lorch's Ph.D. thesis focused on Liouville's results about the impossibility of solving certain integrals and differential equations with elementary functions.
- Under Marshall H. Stone's supervision, Lorch aimed to study Hilbert and Banach spaces, leading him to seek guidance from von Neumann and Frederick Riesz.
- Lorch was offered a position as von Neumann's assistant, which included duties like note-taking, translating papers, editing the Annals of Mathematics, and teaching typesetting.
- Von Neumann's lectures were notoriously fast-paced, and his assistant had to keep up with his rapid delivery and extensive notes.
- Lorch declined the demanding role and instead chose to study with Frederick Riesz in Szeged, Hungary, where he had a fruitful and harmonious mentorship.
- The essay is based on Lorch's writings about his experiences, compiled by Reuben Hersh and published in 'The American Mathematical Monthly' in 1993.