Paul Nemenyi

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 was possibly the father of former World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer.

Biography

He obtained the D.Sc. in Berlin in 1922 and lectured on engineering at the Technical University of Berlin. [Arnold Dresden, “The Migration of Mathematicians”, "American Mathematical Monthly" 49:7 (1942), p. 422. Available on [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9890%28194208%2F09%2949%3A7%3C415%3ATMOM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z Jstor] to subscribers.] 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. [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).] . In 1941 he was appointed instructor at the University of Colorado, and in 1944 at the State College of Washington. [American Mathematical Monthly 51:2 (1944), p. 108. Available through [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9890%28194402%2951%3A2%3C104%3ANAN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X JSTOR] for subscribers.]

In 1947 he was appointed physicist with the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, White Oak, Maryland. ["American Mathematical Monthly" 54:6 (1947), p. 361. Available through [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9890%28194706%2F07%2954%3A6%3C358%3ANAN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T JSTOR] to subscribers.] He was headof the Theoretical Mechanics Section at the laboratoryand one of the country's principal authorities on elasticityand 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 thesubjects of his researches. He has been described as having “extreme [ly] versatile interests and erudition”. [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 [http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=6LO_U6T-HvsC&oi=fnd&pg=PA21&dq=%22paul+nemenyi%22&ots=g7hDk1c9Z6&sig=1kvCWyOCwz0o4NdUHUusocT3J1s#PPA28,M1 Google books] . Accessed 27 Dec. 2007.] Nemenyi's interest and ability encompassed severalnonscientific fields. He collected children's art andsometimes 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. [Nemenyi, Paul. "Test Borings in the Britannica". "New Republic". Feb. 19, 1951, p 17.] He was survived by a son, Peter, astudent of mathematics at Princeton University. [Obituary in "Science", August 29, 1952, p. 216.]

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. [Nicholas, Peter, and Clea Benson. [http://www.philly.com/inquirer/news/13896736.html "Files reveal how FBI hounded chess king"] . Philadelphia Inquirer. November 17 2002] [ [http://www.chess.com/article/view/who-was-fischers-father Who was Fischer's father?] - a detailed but uncited article by an amateur chess historian] [See the "Early years" section of the Fischer article for more details on this issue.]

elect 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.

Obituaries

*"Science", 29 August 1952, Vol. 116. no. 3009, pp. 215 - 216 [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/116/3009/215.pdf]
*"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.]

(Information not incorporated into article)

References