The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann | Mathematics - Medium

“Most mathematicians prove what they can, von Neumann proves what he wants”

It is indeed supremely difficult to effectively refute the claim that John von Neumann is likely the most intelligent person who has ever lived by Jørgen Veisdal, Editor-in-Chief at Cantor’s Paradise.

The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann
Photo: Cantors-Paradise

By the time of his death in 1957 at the modest age of 53, the Hungarian polymath had not only revolutionized several subfields of mathematics and physics but also made foundational contributions to pure economics and statistics and taken key parts in the invention of the atomic bomb, nuclear energy and digital computing.

Known now as “the last representative of the great mathematicians”, von Neumann’s genius was legendary even in his own lifetime. The sheer breadth of stories and anecdotes about his brilliance, from Nobel Prize-winning physicists to world-class mathematicians abound:...

As a supervisor

In the paper Szeged in 1934 (Lorch, 1993) Edgar R. Lorch describes his experience of working as an assistant for von Neumann in the 1930s, including his duties:

• Attending von Neumann’s lectures on operator theory, taking notes, completing unfinished proofs and circulating them to all American university libraries;
• Assisting von Neumann in his role as the editor of the Annals of Mathematics by reading through every manuscript accepted to the publication, underlining greek letters in red and german letters in green, circling italics, writing notes to printers in the margins and going once per week to the printers in order to instruct them in the art of typesetting;
• Translating von Neumann’s numerous 100-page papers into English;

"His fluid line of thought was difficult for those less gifted to follow. He was notorious for dashing out equations on a small portion of the available blackboard and erasing expressions before students could copy them."

- Excerpt, John von Neumann: As Seen by his Brother by N.A. Vonneuman (1987) 
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Source: Medium