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Ulam, Dr. Stanislaw Marcin (1909 - 1984) with wife Francoise (at home)

scientist - mathematician - engineer

Dr. Stanislaw Marcin Ulam was one of the many sons of Poland who contributed much to America and the American way of life through their talents in engineering, science and other related fields.

Dr Ulam was a working mathematician in Poland in the 1930's and was a member of the now legendary Polish School of Mathematics. He came to the United States in 1935 with a temporary appointment at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University where he mingled with such luminaries as Einstein and vonNeumann. When WWII broke out, Dr. Ulam, at the suggestion of his friend John von Neumann, joined Enrico Fermi, Edward Teller and other scientists who were working on the Atomic Bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

When the hydrogen bomb became a mutual deterrent to war, Dr. Ulam became one of the greatest contemporary mathematicians to play a key role in its development. Early in the studies of its design, the scientists ran into a stumbling block so critical that the feasibility of such a weapon seemed in doubt. They were unable to devise a way, using the energy of an atomic explosion, to create conditions sufficiently like those in the core of the sun to initiate the fusion of hydrogen atoms and release the devasting energy of the proposed bomb, until Dr. Ulam had an insight into a different theoretical approach that made building the bomb possible. Details of what is now known as the Teller-Ulam Solution are still classified by the United States Government.

From: Wally West

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