Paul Nemenyi

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Paul Felix Nemenyi (June 5, 1895, Fiume, Kingdom of Hungary – March 1, 1952, Washington DC, USA) was a Jewish Hungarian physicist specializing in fluid dynamics. He obtained the D.Sc. in Berlin in 1922 and lectured on engineering at the Technical University of Berlin.[1] Sacked when the Nazis came to power, he found work for a time in Copenhagen.

He arrived in the USA around the outbreak of World War II, where he briefly held a number of teaching positions in succession and took part in hydraulic research at the State University of Iowa.[2]. In 1941 he was appointed instructor at the University of Colorado, and in 1944 at the State College of Washington.[3]

In 1947 he was appointed physicist with the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, White Oak, Maryland.[4] He was head of the Theoretical Mechanics Section at the laboratory and one of the country's principal authorities on elasticity and fluid dynamics. He was best known for using what he called the inverse or semi-inverse approach to obtain numerous exact solutions of the nonlinear equations of gas dynamics, many of them representing rotational flows of nonuniform total energy (see article by Nemenyi and Prim in Selected List of Publications below, which is Nemenyi's most highly cited work, though it has had no citations since 1985. Exact solutions may have less practical importance since the widespread availability of computers.). His scientific knowledge extended well beyond the subjects of his researches. He has been described as having “extreme[ly] versatile interests and erudition”.[5] Nemenyi's interest and ability encompassed several nonscientific fields. He collected children's art and sometimes lectured upon it. In 1951, he published a critique of the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica, and suggested improvements for such diverse sections as psychology and psychoanalysis.[6] He was survived by a son, Peter, a student of mathematics at Princeton University.[7]

He died on March 1, 1952, at the age of 56.

He was identified in a 2002 story in The Philadelphia Inquirer as the likely biological father of chess champion Bobby Fischer.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Arnold Dresden, “The Migration of Mathematicians”, American Mathematical Monthly 49:7 (1942), p. 422. Available on Jstor to subscribers.
  2. ^ Published as ‘An Annotated Bibliography of Fishways’, Bulletin 23 of the State University of Iowa (1941) and A.M. McLeod and Paul Nemenyi, ‘An Investigation of Fishways’, Bulletin 24 of the State University of Iowa (1941).
  3. ^ American Mathematical Monthly 51:2 (1944), p. 108. Available through JSTOR for subscribers.
  4. ^ American Mathematical Monthly 54:6 (1947), p. 361. Available through JSTOR to subscribers.
  5. ^ Gleb K. Mikhailov, ‘Development of Studies in the History of Elasticity Theory and Structrual Mechanics’, in Essays on the History of Mechanics: In Memory of Clifford Ambrose Truesdell, edited by Antonio Becchi et al. (Basel, Boston and Belin: Birkhäuser Verlag, 2003), p. 30. Available through Google books. Accessed 27 Dec. 2007.
  6. ^ Nemenyi, Paul. "Test Borings in the Britannica". New Republic. Feb. 19, 1951, p 17.
  7. ^ Obituary in Science, August 29, 1952, p. 216.
  8. ^ See the "Early years" section of the Fischer article for more details on this issue.

[edit] Select list of publications

  • Adolf Ludin and Paul Nemenyi, Die nordischen Wasserkräfte: Ausbau und wirtschaftliche Ausnutzung. Berlin: Julius Springer, 1930.
  • Paul Nemenyi, Wasserbauliche Strömungslehre. Barth Verlag, 1933.
  • Paul Nemenyi and Bennie N. Netser, ‘Relation of the Statistical Theory of Turbulence to Hydraulics’, Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers 66 (1940), pp. 967-979.
  • Paul Nemenyi and R. Prim. Some geometric properties of plane gas flow. JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS Volume: 27 Issue: 2 Pages: 130-135 Published: 1948. Cited 14 times according to Science Citation Index. Last cited 1985.
  • Paul Nemenyi, ‘The Main Concepts and Ideas of Fluid Dynamics in their Historical Development’, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 2 (1962), pp. 52-86. Posthumous publication, edited by Clifford Truesdell.

[edit] Obituaries

  • Science, 29 August 1952, Vol. 116. no. 3009, pp. 215 - 216 [1]
  • Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 1953, 43, pp. 62-63 [Clifford Truesdell wrote this obituary and the Science obituary, and they are virtually identical.]

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