Nelson H. F. Beebe <beebe at math . utah . edu, beebe at acm . org, beebe at computer . org> (email mangled to prevent spamming)
University of Utah Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB 155 S 1400 E RM 233 Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090 USA
Abstract:
This is a bibliography of publications of the late Nicholas Constantine Metropolis (June 11, 1915 – October 17, 1999), chemical physicist, mathematician, statistician, and computer scientist. It also includes biographical entries about Metropolis.
Keywords:
bibliography; BibTeX; MANIAC (Mathematical Numerical Integrator and Computer); Metropolis algorithm; Metropolis method (an efficient procedure for computing equilibrium properties of solids, liquids, gases, and plasmas); Monte Carlo method
Author Comments:
The companion LaTeX file metropolis-nicholas.ltx can be used to typeset this bibliography. This bibliography cannot claim complete coverage, because much of Metropolis' career was spent at a nuclear weapons laboratory where most research is classified and secret. For Metropolis biographies, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Metropolishttp://www.lanl.gov/orgs/pa/News/101999.htmlhttp://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Metropolis.html and entries Cortada:1987:HDD, Heinzmann:1999:ONM, Balazs:2000:ONC, Yost:2002:BGR, and Waterman:2004:NG. See also the Web site of the American Physical Society's Nicholas Metropolis Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Work in Computational Physics: http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/dissertation/metropolis.cfm The Los Alamos National Laboratory has the Nicholas C. Metropolis Center for Modeling and Simulation (the Metropolis Center). From the obituary at Los Alamos: ``He is best known for his contributions to the Monte Carlo mathematical method, now widely used to apply the laws of probability to science, and more generally to the field of integro-differential equations that are important in nearly every branch of the natural sciences. ... Metropolis also is known for carrying forward John von Neumann's principle of the stored program to develop one of the world's first high-speed electronic digital computers, which he named the Mathematical and Numerical Integrator and Computer, or MANIAC. Metropolis often said he chose an absurd acronym to put an end to the scientific practice of attaching acronyms to everything. Ironically, the acronym not only stuck, it probably exacerbated the acronym fad.'' From the Wolfram Research obituary: ``Metropolis enjoyed creating original names for discoveries. For example, when Emilio Segré asked Metropolis to suggest names for two new elements Segré and others had discovered, Metropolis proposed ``technetium'' (from the Greek technetos, meaning 'artificial') for element 43, and ``astatine'' (from the Greek , astatos, meaning 'unstable' for element 85). Metropolis also coined the terms ``Monte Carlo'' and ``MANIAC''. From the NA Digest obituary: ``He came to Los Alamos in 1943 as a member of the initial staff of fifty scientists of the Manhattan Project. Except for two periods (1946–1948 and 1957–1965), during which he was professor of Physics at the University of Chicago, he spent his entire career at Los Alamos.'' At version 1.08, the year coverage looked like this: 1939 ( 1) 1962 ( 2) 1985 ( 5) 1940 ( 0) 1963 ( 5) 1986 ( 6) 1941 ( 3) 1964 ( 3) 1987 ( 4) 1942 ( 0) 1965 ( 9) 1988 ( 2) 1943 ( 1) 1966 ( 1) 1989 ( 1) 1944 ( 0) 1967 ( 3) 1990 ( 2) 1945 ( 0) 1968 ( 3) 1991 ( 3) 1946 ( 0) 1969 ( 2) 1992 ( 1) 1947 ( 1) 1970 ( 5) 1993 ( 3) 1948 ( 0) 1971 ( 2) 1994 ( 0) 1949 ( 4) 1972 ( 7) 1995 ( 1) 1950 ( 4) 1973 ( 4) 1996 ( 2) 1951 ( 2) 1974 ( 1) 1997 ( 0) 1952 ( 2) 1975 ( 3) 1998 ( 0) 1953 ( 3) 1976 ( 5) 1999 ( 1) 1954 ( 6) 1977 ( 4) 2000 ( 3) 1955 ( 2) 1978 ( 3) 2001 ( 0) 1956 ( 4) 1979 ( 1) 2002 ( 1) 1957 ( 1) 1980 ( 5) 2003 ( 0) 1958 ( 3) 1981 ( 4) 2004 ( 2) 1959 ( 6) 1982 ( 1) 2005 ( 1) 1960 ( 3) 1983 ( 4) 1961 ( 3) 1984 ( 4) Article: 93 Book: 17 InCollection: 9 InProceedings: 7 Misc: 2 Periodical: 1 PhdThesis: 1 Proceedings: 14 TechReport: 24 Total entries: 168 This file is available as part of the BibNet Project. The master copy is available for public access on ftp.math.utah.edu in the directory tree /pub/bibnet/authors. It is mirrored to netlib.bell-labs.com in the directory tree /netlib/bibnet/authors, from which it is available via anonymous ftp and the Netlib service. Data from this bibliography has been collected from the TeX User Group bibliography archive, the Karlsruhe Computer Science bibliography archive, the BibNet Project, the American Mathematical Society MathSciNet database, the European Mathematical Society Zentralblatt Math database, the American Physical Society PROLA database, the Compendex database, the IEEE Xplore database, the INSPEC database, the ACM Portal database, and numerous online library catalogs.
