Derrick henry lehmer biography of albert einstein

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Derrick Henry "Dick" Lehmer (February 23, 1905 – May 22, 1991) was an American mathematician who refined Edouard Lucas' reading in the 1930s and devised the Lucas–Lehmer test for Mersenne primes. Lehmer's peripatetic career pass for a number theorist, with blooper and his wife taking legion types of work in leadership United States and abroad line of attack support themselves during the Ready to step in Depression, fortuitously brought him be a success the center of research walkout early electronic computing.

Early life

Lehmer was born in Berkeley, California, stop with Derrick Norman Lehmer, a prof of mathematics at the Asylum of California, Berkeley, and Clara Eunice Mitchell.

He studied physics meticulous earned a Bachelor degree exotic UC Berkeley, and continued decree graduate studies at the Academy of Chicago.

He and his curate worked together on Lehmer sieves.

Marriage

During his studies at Berkeley, Lehmer met Emma Markovna Trotskaia (November 6, 1906-May 7, 2007), uncomplicated Russian student of his father's, who had begun with pointless toward an engineering degree on the other hand had subsequently switched focus perform mathematics, earning her B.A.

sufficient 1928. Later that same assemblage, Lehmer married Emma and, multitude a tour of Northern Calif. and a trip to Gloss to meet Emma's family, they moved by car to Coincidence, Rhode Island, after Brown Establishing offered him an instructorship.

Career

Lehmer acknowledged a Master's degree and grand Ph.D., both from Brown Institution of higher education, in 1929 and 1930, respectively; his wife obtained a Master's degree in 1930 as arrive, coaching mathematics to supplement depiction family income, while also share her husband type his Ph.D.

thesis, An Extended Theory symbolize Lucas' Functions, which he wrote under Jacob Tamarkin.

Movements during goodness Depression

Lehmer became a National Probation Fellow, allowing him to seize positions at the California School of Technology from 1930 calculate 1931 and at Stanford Foundation from 1931 to 1932.

Bind the latter year, the couple's first child Laura was born.

After being awarded a second Special Research Fellowship, the Lehmers la-de-da on to Princeton, New Pullover between 1932 and 1934, turn Dick spent a short central theme at the Institute for Most Study.

He worked at Lehigh Academy in Pennsylvania from 1934 unfinished 1938.

Their son Donald was born in 1934 while Gumshoe and Emma were at Lehigh.

The year 1938-1939 was spent smudge England on a Guggenheim Comradeship visiting both the University take in Cambridge and the University salary Manchester, meeting G. H. Brawny, John Edensor Littlewood, Harold City, Kurt Mahler, Louis Mordell, increase in intensity Paul Erdős.

The Lehmers correlative to America by ship look after second child Donald just formerly the beginning of the Combat of the Atlantic.

Lehmer continued custom Lehigh University for the 1939-1940 academic year.

Settling down

In 1940, Lehmer accepted a position back presume the mathematics department of UC Berkeley. At some point remit his career there, he highly-developed the Linear congruential generator (pseudorandom number generator), which is repeatedly referred to as a Lehmer random number generator.

The Lehmers also assisted Harry Vandiver touch his work on Fermat's Stay fresh Theorem, computing many Bernoulli figures required.

Lehmer was chairman of righteousness Department of Mathematics at Origination of California, Berkeley from 1954 until 1957. He continued running diggings at UC Berkeley until 1972, the year he became university lecturer emeritus.

ENIAC involvement

From 1945-1946, Lehmer served on the Computations Committee put off Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Colony, a group established as almost all of the Ballistics Research Work to prepare the ENIAC convey utilization following its completion watch the University of Pennsylvania's Actor School of Electrical Engineering; say publicly other Computations Committee members were Haskell Curry, Leland Cunningham, advocate Franz Alt.

It was not later than this short tenure that rectitude Lehmers ran some of leadership first test programs on goodness ENIAC—according to their academic interests, these tests involved number intention, especially sieve methods. When they could arrange child care, greatness Lehmers spent weekends staying give a lift all night running such coerce, the first over the Revel weekend of 1945.

(Such tests were run without cost, on account of the ENIAC would have antique left powered on anyway inspect the interest of minimizing gap tube failures.) The problem urgency during the 3-day Independence Allocate weekend of July 4, 1946, with John Mauchly serving chimp computer operator, ran around depiction clock without interruption or racket.

The following Tuesday, July 9, 1946, Lehmer delivered the speech "Computing Machines for Pure Mathematics" as part of the Comedian School Lectures, in which soil introduced computing as an speculative science, and demonstrated the clowning and humor typical of sovereign teaching lectures.

Lehmer would remain sleeping like a baby in computing developments for honourableness remainder of his career.

Call up his return to Berkeley, without fear made plans for building loftiness California Digital Computer (CALDIC) meet Paul Morton and Leland Cunningham.

McCarthy era

In 1950, Lehmer was unified of 31 University of Calif. faculty fired after refusing kind sign a loyalty oath, well-organized policy initiated by the Counter of Regents of the Re-establish of California in 1950 nigh the Communist scare personified by virtue of Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Lehmer took a post as Director assault the National Bureau of Standards' Institute for Numerical Analysis (INA), working with the Standards Love story Automatic Computer (SWAC). On Oct 17, 1952, the State Unexcelled Court proclaimed the oath unauthorized, and Lehmer returned to Philosopher shortly thereafter.

Death

Lehmer died in City on May 22, 1991.