Robert Davis Richtmyer (October 10, 1910 – September 24, 2003) was an American physicist, mathematician, educator, author, and musician.

Biography

Richtmyer was born on October 10, 1910, in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

. His father was physicist Floyd K. Richtmyer (1881–1939) and mother was Bernice Davis Richtmyer. He studied

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

and

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, graduating in 1932 when his father was dean of the graduate school. He received a Ph.D. from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in 1935 under advisor John C. Slater. He taught at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

as an instructor in the physics department from 1936 through 1940. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he worked at

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...

, and became the leader of the theoretical division after the war. A letter sent March 11, 1947, from

John von Neumann John von Neumann ( ; ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer. Von Neumann had perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time, in ...

to Richtmyer outlined a technique for approximating complex problems being studied at Los Alamos by

Stanislaw Ulam Stanislav and variants may refer to: People *Stanislav (given name), a Slavic given name with many spelling variations (Stanislaus, Stanislas, Stanisław, etc.) Places * Stanislav, Kherson Oblast, a coastal village in Ukraine * Stanislaus County, ...

. Richtmyer used the massive

IBM SSEC The IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC) was an electromechanical computer built by IBM. Its design was started in late 1944 and it operated from January 1948 to August 1952. It had many of the features of a stored-program computer ...

calculator for some of the first large-scale uses of what would be called the

Monte Carlo method Monte Carlo methods, or Monte Carlo experiments, are a broad class of computational algorithms that rely on repeated random sampling to obtain numerical results. The underlying concept is to use randomness to solve problems that might be ...

. In 1953 Richtmyer joined the faculty of

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU). Founded in 1935, it is named after Richard Courant, one of the founders of the Courant Institute ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. In 1956 he published a paper with

Peter Lax Peter David Lax (1 May 1926 – 16 May 2025) was a Hungarian-born American mathematician and Abel Prize laureate working in the areas of pure and applied mathematics. Lax made important contributions to integrable systems, fluid dynamics an ...

proving the Lax–Richtmyer equivalence theorem. It is sometimes called the fundamental theorem of

numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic computation, symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of ...

. Starting in 1964, he taught

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

at the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a Public university, public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a Federated state, state, it is the fla ...

until his retirement in the early 1980s. He was the author of textbooks including the well known '' Introduction to Modern Physics'' with several printed editions with E.H.Kennard and other authors, ''Principles of Advanced Mathematical Physics'' in 1978. In 1990 he was awarded the

Leroy P. Steele Prize The Leroy P. Steele Prizes are awarded every year by the American Mathematical Society, for distinguished research work and writing in the field of mathematics. Since 1993, there has been a formal division into three categories. The prizes have b ...

from the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

for his book ''Difference Methods for Initial-Value Problems''. He also played

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

with the

Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra The Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1958, is a professional symphony orchestra based in Boulder, Colorado. It is led by Music Director Michael Butterman. The Boulder Philharmonic's season at Macky Auditorium on the University of Color ...

. Richtmyer died on September 24, 2003, in

Gardner, Colorado Gardner is a census-designated place (CDP) and post office in and governed by Huerfano County, Colorado, United States. The Gardner post office has the ZIP Code 81040. At the United States Census 2020, the population of the Gardner CDP was 10 ...

. He was survived by daughters Anna Degen and Roberta Cookingham. An adopted son, Haile Michael Mezghebe (born 1948), is a physician at the

George Washington University Medical Center The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a private federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress and is the first un ...

who helped start the first postgraduate medical education program in his native

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

Works

* J. VonNeumann, R. D. Richtmyer (1950). A Method for the Numerical Calculation of Hydrodynamic Shocks. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 21, No. 3., pp. 232–237.(Classic article on the numerical solution of hydrodynamic problems) * R. D. Richtmyer (1960). "Taylor instability in a shock acceleration of compressible fluids", Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics 13, 297–319. (Predicted the

Richtmyer–Meshkov instability The Richtmyer–Meshkov instability (RMI) occurs when two fluids of different density are impulsively accelerated. Normally this is by the passage of a shock wave. The development of the instability begins with small amplitude perturbations which i ...

) * R. D. Richtmyer and K. W. Morton (1967). ''Difference Methods for Initial-Value Problems''. Second edition. Wiley-Interscience. * R. D. Richtmyer (1967). Stability of a New Radio Flash Code. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, NM (LA-3864-MS). * R. D. Richtmyer (1978), ''Principles of Advanced Mathematical Physics'' Vol. 1 & 2, Springer-Verlag, New York.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richtmyer, Robert D. 1910 births 2003 deaths 20th-century American physicists 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American fluid dynamicists Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences faculty Scientists from Ithaca, New York Mathematicians from New York (state) Fellows of the American Physical Society Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni

Biography

Works

See also

References