Nicholas Metropolis

Name: Nicholas Constantine Metropolis

Born: June 11, 1915, in Chicago, Illinois, USA

Death: October 17, 1999 (Age: 84)

Computer-related contributions

• Greek American physicist.
• Known for the Monte Carlo method, simulated annealing and Metropolis–Hastings algorithm.
• One of the original staff of fifty scientists at Los Alamos in 1943 during the Manhattan Project.
• After World War II, he returned to Los Alamos in 1948 to lead the group in the Theoretical (T) Division that designed and built the MANIAC I computer in 1952.

Honors and awards

• First Los Alamos employee honored with the title "emeritus" by the University of California (1987).
• Awarded the Pioneer Medal by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
• Made a Laboratory Senior Fellow at Los Alamos (1980).
• Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Quotes

"Most of us have grown so blase about computer developments and capabilities — even some that are spectacular — that it is difficult to believe or imagine there was a time when we suffered the noisy, painstakingly slow, electromechanical devices that chomped away on punched cards."