George Bernard Danzig - American mathematician; developed the simplex method, an algorithm for solving problems involving many conditions and variables, and in the process founded the field of linear programming. Author of outstanding scientific works and winner of several awards.
Biography
George Danzig (November 8, 1914 - May 13, 2004) was born in Portland, Oregon, USA. His father, Tobias, was a Russian-born mathematician who studied with Henri Poincaré in Paris. Then at the Sorbonne he worked as a professor of mathematics and started a relationship with his student Anja Ourisson. After some time they got married and emigrated to the United States. Their firstborn was George.
During his youth, Dantzig's father was director of mathematics at the University of Maryland, but resigned at the end of World War II. Anya was a linguist and specialized in Slavic languages.
Study
George Dantzig (pictured in article) enrolled at the University of Maryland to study mathematics. There he receivedbachelor degree. However, he was never satisfied with the teaching methods that this university used. In 1937, Danzig began working for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He was so engrossed in his work that he enrolled at Berkeley University, where he also felt that the courses were too easy and even pointless. This made him think about dropping out of college.
While attending a class in 1939, Professor Jerzy Neumann wrote on the blackboard two difficult statistical problems that needed to be solved. Late to class, George Dantzig mistook them for homework. In his own words, the tasks were difficult, but after a few days he was able to provide an answer.
Professor Jerzy Neumann admired the intellect of the mathematician George Danzig and offered to publish his solution in a mathematical journal. A few years later, another researcher, Abraham Wald, supplemented and published his paper in which he explained the derivation of the second problem. Danzig was included as a co-author. The solution of these problems, at the suggestion of Professor Neumann, formed the basis of his doctoral dissertation. However, he wrote it intermittently.
Work in the military
Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, George Dantzig interrupted his scientific work, leaving to serve in the US Air Force. He collaborated with the Combat Analysis Statistical Control Division. He soon returned and completed the last stage of his doctoral dissertation. After that, he again went to the army, where he took the post of adviser in mathematics to the US Air Force controller.
He became head of the Combat Analysis Division of the US Air Force Statistical Headquarters. This work motivated him to accomplish great mathematical feats, as the Air Force needed to calculate the duration of the deployment, training and logistics phases of the program in the most optimal and efficient way. Although he spent a lot of time on these calculations, this work was of great importance, because thanks to it, in 1947, he proposed a simplex method for solving linear programming problems.
Development of ideas
In 1952, George Danzig was a mathematical researcher at the RAND Corporation, where he focused on linear programming on the corporation's computers. Success at the time was great, and he continued to do similar work at Berkeley and Stanford Universities in California, as well as at centers such as the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna. During this last work, he made improvements in solving linear programming problems.
Research and Development
October 3, 1947 at the Institute for Advanced Study, George Danzig met with John von Neumann, considered one of the best mathematicians in the world. Neumann told him about Game Theory, which was still in development and was being done with Oscar Morgenstern. This was very important, because on the basis of the acquired knowledge, he, together with Fulkerson and Johnson, developed the theory of duality in 1954.
On the other hand, heworked on the bifurcation method, which was used in programming to solve large problems. He was responsible for stochastic programming, which focuses on mathematical programming problems involving random variables. His knowledge and contributions were reflected in two of his books: Linear Programming and Extensions (1963) and a two-volume book: Linear Programming (1997 and 2003), written with N. Tapa.
Awards and prizes
He received several awards for his great work and contribution to the development of his country's armed forces. In 1976, President Gerald Ford presented Danzig with the National Medal of Science, and his work was recognized during an important ceremony at the White House, where his invention of linear programming was recognized for the effective use of mathematical theory.
In 1975 he also received the John von Neumann Theory Prize and the 1977 National Academy of Sciences Prize in Applied Mathematics and Numerical Analysis. In Israel, he was awarded the Harvey Prize in Science and Technology from the Technion in 1985. The Academy of Sciences and the US National Academy of Engineering recognized his contribution by offering him membership in the society. An award was created in his honor, provided by the Society for Mathematical Programming and SIAM.
Death
In the last years of his life, he developed he alth problems associated with diabetes and a disease of the cardiovascular system. May 13, 2004 GeorgeBernard Danzig passed away at the age of 90 surrounded by family at his residence at Stanford.
