题目背景

John von Neumann, b. Dec. 28, 1903, d. Feb. 8, 1957, was a Hungarian-American mathematician who made important contributions to the foundations of mathematics, logic, quantum physics, meteorology, science, computers, and game theory. He was noted for a phenomenal memory and the speed with which he absorbed ideas and solved problems. In 1925 he received a B.S. diploma in chemical engineering from Zurich Institute and in 1926 a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Budapest, His Ph.D. dissertation on set theory was an important contributions to the subject.

At the age of 20, von Neumann proposed a new definition of ordinal numbers that was universally adopted. While still in his twenties, he made many contributions in both pure and applied mathematics that established him as a mathematician of unusual depth. His Mathematical Foundation of Quantum Mechanics (1932) built a solid framework for the new scientific discipline.

During this time he also proved the mini-max theorem of GAME THEORY. He gradually expanded his work in game theory, and with coauthor Oskar Morgenstern he wrote Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944).