Editing Norbert Wiener (section)

==Biography==

===Youth===
Wiener was born in [[Columbia, Missouri]], the first child of [[Leo Wiener]] and Bertha Kahn, [[Jewish]] immigrants from [[Lithuanian Jews|Lithuania]] and [[German Jews|Germany]], respectively. Through his father, he was related to [[Maimonides]], the famous [[rabbi]], philosopher and physician from [[Al Andalus]], as well as to [[Akiva Eger]], [[chief rabbi]] of [[Poznań|Posen]] from 1815 to 1837.<ref name=Montagnini-2017/>{{rp|style=ama|page=4}}

Leo had educated Norbert at home until 1903, employing teaching methods of his own invention, except for a brief interlude when Norbert was seven years of age. Earning his living teaching German and Slavic languages, Leo read widely and accumulated a personal library from which the young Norbert benefited greatly. Leo also had ample ability in mathematics and tutored his son in the subject until he left home. In his autobiography, Norbert described his father as calm and patient, unless he (Norbert) failed to give a correct answer, at which his father would lose his temper.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wallace |first=Amy |url=https://archive.org/details/prodigy00wall/mode/2up?q=%22wiener%22&view=theater |title=The prodigy |date=1986 |publisher=New York : E.P. Dutton |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-525-24404-2 |pages=57}}</ref>

In "The Theory of Ignorance", a paper he wrote at the age of 10, he disputed "man’s presumption in declaring that his knowledge has no limits", arguing that all human knowledge "is based on an approximation", and acknowledging "the impossibility of being certain of anything."<ref>{{harvnb|Conway|Siegelman|2005}}</ref>

He graduated from [[Ayer High School]] in 1906 at 11 years of age, and Wiener then entered [[Tufts College]]. He was awarded a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in mathematics in 1909 at the age of 14, whereupon he began graduate studies of [[zoology]] at [[Harvard]].  In 1910 he transferred to [[Cornell University|Cornell]] to study philosophy. He graduated in 1911 at 17 years of age.<ref name="NYT Norbert Wiener obituary">{{cite web | title=Dr. Norbert Wiener Dead at 69; Known as Father of Automation | website=The New York Times | date=1964-03-19 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/03/19/archives/dr-norbert-wiener-dead-at-69-known-as-father-of-automation.html | access-date=2024-01-14}}</ref>

===Harvard and World War I===
The next year he returned to Harvard, while still continuing his philosophical studies. Back at Harvard, Wiener became influenced by [[Edward Vermilye Huntington]], whose mathematical interests ranged from axiomatic foundations to engineering problems. Harvard awarded Wiener a [[PhD]] in June&nbsp;1913, when he was only 19&nbsp;years old, for a dissertation on [[mathematical logic]] (a comparison of the work of [[Ernst Schröder (mathematician)|Ernst Schröder]] with that of [[Alfred North Whitehead]] and [[Bertrand Russell]]), supervised by Karl Schmidt, the essential results of which were published as {{harvp|Wiener|1914}}. He was one of the youngest to achieve such a feat. In that dissertation, he was the first to state publicly that [[ordered pair]]s can be defined in terms of elementary [[set theory]]. Hence [[relation (mathematics)|relations]] can be defined by set theory, thus the theory of relations does not require any axioms or primitive notions distinct from those of set theory. In 1921, [[Kazimierz Kuratowski]] proposed a simplification of Wiener's definition of ordered pairs, and that simplification has been in common use ever since. It is <math>\ \left( x, y \right) = \bigl\{ \left\{ x \right\}, \left\{x, y \right\}\ \bigr\} ~.</math>

In 1914, Wiener traveled to Europe, to be taught by [[Bertrand Russell]] and [[G. H. Hardy]] at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]], and by [[David Hilbert]] and [[Edmund Landau]] at the [[University of Göttingen]]. At Göttingen he also attended three courses with [[Edmund Husserl]] "one on Kant's ethical writings, one on the principles of Ethics, and the seminar on Phenomenology." (Letter to Russell, c. June or July, 1914). During 1915–1916, he taught philosophy at Harvard, then was an engineer for [[General Electric]] and wrote for the ''[[Encyclopedia Americana]]''. Wiener was briefly a journalist for the ''[[Boston Herald]]'', where he wrote a feature story on the poor labor conditions for mill workers in [[Lawrence, Massachusetts]], but he was fired soon afterwards for his reluctance to write favorable articles about a politician the newspaper's owners sought to promote.<ref>{{harvnb|Conway|Siegelman|2005|p=45}}</ref>

Although Wiener eventually became a staunch pacifist, he eagerly contributed to the war effort in World War I. In 1916, with [[United States in World War I|America's entry into the war]] drawing closer, Wiener attended a training camp for potential military officers but failed to earn a commission. One year later Wiener again tried to join the military, but the government again rejected him due to his poor eyesight. In the summer of 1918, [[Oswald Veblen]] invited Wiener to work on [[ballistics]] at the [[Aberdeen Proving Ground]] in Maryland.<ref>{{harvnb|Conway|Siegelman|2005|pp=41–43}}</ref> Living and working with other mathematicians strengthened his interest in mathematics. However, Wiener was still eager to serve in uniform and decided to make one more attempt to enlist, this time as a common soldier. Wiener wrote in a letter to his parents, "I should consider myself a pretty cheap kind of a swine if I were willing to be an officer but unwilling to be a soldier."<ref>{{harvnb|Conway|Siegelman|2005|p=43}}</ref> This time the army accepted Wiener into its ranks and assigned him, by coincidence, to a unit stationed at Aberdeen, Maryland. World War I ended just days after Wiener's return to Aberdeen and Wiener was discharged from the military in February 1919.<ref>{{harvnb|Conway|Siegelman|2005|pp=43–44}}</ref>

===After the war===
[[File:MIT Building 10 and the Great Dome, Cambridge MA.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Norbert Wiener was regarded as a semi-legendary figure at MIT.]]
[[File:Wiener Zurich1932.tif|thumb|200px|Norbert (standing) and Margaret Wiener (sitting) at the [[International Congress of Mathematicians]], Zurich 1932]]
Wiener was unable to secure a permanent position at Harvard, a situation he attributed largely to [[anti-Semitism]] at the university and in particular the antipathy of Harvard mathematician [[George David Birkhoff|G. D. Birkhoff]].<ref>{{harvnb|Conway|Siegelman|2005|pp=40, 45}}</ref> He was also rejected for a position at the [[University of Melbourne]]. At [[William Fogg Osgood|W. F. Osgood's]] suggestion, Wiener was hired as an instructor of mathematics at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]], where, after his promotion to professor, he spent the remainder of his career. For many years his photograph was prominently displayed in the [[Infinite Corridor]] and often used in giving directions, but by 2017 it had been removed.<ref>{{cite web |title=Does the infinite corridor still have a poster of Norbert Wiener and cybernetics? |url=https://www.quora.com/Does-the-infinite-corridor-still-have-a-poster-of-Norbert-Wiener-and-cybernetics |access-date=2019-10-27}}</ref>

In 1926, Wiener returned to Europe as a [[Guggenheim scholar]]. He spent most of his time at Göttingen and with Hardy at Cambridge, working on [[Brownian motion]], the [[Fourier integral]], [[Dirichlet's problem]], harmonic analysis, and the [[Tauberian theorems]].

In 1926, Wiener's parents arranged his marriage to a German immigrant, Margaret Engemann; they had two daughters. His sister, Constance (1898–1973), married mathematician [[Philip Franklin]]. Their daughter, Janet, Wiener's niece, married mathematician [[Václav E. Beneš]].<ref>[http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Franklin.html Franklin biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180713153354/http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Franklin.html |date=2018-07-13 }}. History.mcs.st-and.ac.uk. Retrieved on 2013-11-02.</ref> Norbert Wiener's sister, Bertha (1902–1995), married the botanist [[Carroll William Dodge]].

Many tales, perhaps apocryphal, were told of Norbert Wiener at MIT, especially concerning his absent-mindedness.  It was said that he returned home once to find his house empty. He inquired of a neighborhood girl the reason, and she said that the family had moved elsewhere that day. He thanked her for the information and she replied, "It's ok, Daddy, Mommy sent me to get you".<ref>{{cite book |first1=Colin |last1=Adams |first2=Joel |last2=Hass |first3=Abigail |last3=Thompson |year=1998 |title=How to Ace Calculus: The streetwise guide |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=9780716731603 |page=8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MD96Vp60mLYC&pg=PA8 }}</ref>
Asked about the story, Wiener's daughter reportedly asserted that "he never forgot who his children were! The rest of it, however, was pretty close to what actually happened&nbsp;..."<ref>{{cite web |first=Richard |last=Harter |title=Weiner |website=richardhartersworld.com |date=December 8, 2020 |url=https://richardhartersworld.com/weiner/ }}</ref>

In the run-up to [[World War II]] (1939–45) Wiener became a member of the [[China Aid Society]] and the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German Scholars.<ref>{{cite book |last=Masani|first=Pesi R. |date=2012-12-06 |title=Norbert Wiener 1894–1964|page=167|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=anD0BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA167 |url-status=live |access-date=2016-03-20 |publisher=Birkhäuser |isbn=978-3-0348-9252-0|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222172541/https://books.google.com/books?id=anD0BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA167 |archive-date=2017-02-22 }}</ref> He was interested in placing scholars such as [[Yuk-Wing Lee]] and [[Antoni Zygmund]] who had lost their positions.<ref>{{cite report |last=McCavitt |first=Mary Jane |date=2 September 2009 |title=Guide to the Papers of Norbert Wiener|page=15 |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries |url=https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/research/collections/collections-mc/pdf/mc22.pdf |url-status=dead |access-date=2016-03-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151112055149/http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/research/collections/collections-mc/pdf/mc22.pdf |archive-date=November 12, 2015 }}</ref>

===During and after World War II===
During [[World War II]], his work on the automatic aiming and firing of [[anti-aircraft gun]]s caused Wiener to investigate [[information theory]] independently of [[Claude Shannon]] and to invent the [[Wiener filter]]. (The now-standard practice of modeling an information source as a random process—in other words, as a variety of noise—is due to Wiener.) Initially his anti-aircraft work led him to write, with [[Arturo Rosenblueth]] and [[Julian Bigelow]], the 1943 article 'Behavior, Purpose and Teleology', which was published in [[Philosophy of Science]]. Subsequently his anti-aircraft work led him to formulate [[cybernetics]].<ref>{{harvnb|Conway|Siegelman|2005|p=12}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Peter |last=Galison |date=Autumn 1994 |title=The ontology of the enemy: Norbert Wiener and the cybernetic vision |journal=[[Critical Inquiry (journal)|Critical Inquiry]] |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=228–266 |doi=10.1086/448747 |jstor=1343893 }}</ref> After the war, his fame helped MIT to recruit a research team in [[cognitive science]], composed of researchers in [[neuropsychology]] and the mathematics and [[biophysics]] of the nervous system, including [[Warren Sturgis McCulloch]] and [[Walter Pitts]]. These men later made pioneering contributions to [[computer science]] and [[artificial intelligence]]. Soon after the group was formed, Wiener suddenly ended all contact with its members, mystifying his colleagues. This emotionally traumatized Pitts, and led to his career decline. In their biography of Wiener, [[Flo Conway|Conway]] and [[Jim Siegelman|Siegelman]] suggest that Wiener's wife Margaret, who detested McCulloch's [[Bohemianism|bohemian]] lifestyle, engineered the breach.<ref>{{harvnb|Conway|Siegelman|2005|pp=223–7}}</ref>

[[Patrick D. Wall (scientist)|Patrick D. Wall]] speculated that after the publication of ''Cybernetics'', Wiener asked McCulloch for some physiological facts about the brain that he could then theorize. McCulloch told him "a mixture of what was known to be true and what McCulloch thought should be". Wiener then theorized it, went to a physiology congress, and was shot down. Wiener was convinced that McCulloch had set him up.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Arbib |first=Michael A |date=2000 |title=Warren McCulloch's Search for the Logic of the Nervous System |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/46496/pdf |journal=Perspectives in Biology and Medicine |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=193–216 |doi=10.1353/pbm.2000.0001 |pmid=10804585 |issn=1529-8795}}</ref>

Wiener later helped develop the theories of cybernetics, [[robotics]], computer control, and [[automation]]. He discussed the modeling of neurons with [[John von Neumann]], and in a letter from November 1946 von Neumann presented his thoughts in advance of a meeting with Wiener.<ref>Letters to Norbert Wiener in ''John von Neumann: Selected Letters'', edited by Miklós Rédei, in ''History of Mathematics, Volume 27'', jointly published by the American Mathematical Society and the London Mathematical Society, 2005</ref>

Wiener always shared his theories and findings with other researchers, and credited the contributions of others. These included [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] researchers and their findings. Wiener's acquaintance with them caused him to be regarded with suspicion during the [[Cold War]]. He was a strong advocate of automation to improve the standard of living, and to end economic underdevelopment. His ideas became influential in [[India]], whose government he advised during the 1950s.

After the war, Wiener became increasingly concerned with what he believed was political interference with scientific research, and the militarization of science. His article "A Scientist Rebels" from the January 1947 issue of ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]''<ref>{{cite news |author=Wiener, Norbert |title=A Scientist Rebels |newspaper=Atlantic Monthly |page=46 |date=January 1947 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gsAAAAAMBAJ&q=%22have+received+from+you+a+note+in+which+you+state+that+you+are+engaged+in+a+project+concerning+controlled+missiles,+and+in+which+you+request+a+copy+of+a+paper+which+I+wrote+for+the+National+Defense+Research+Committee+during+the+war%22&pg=PA31 |access-date=2018-10-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026182625/https://books.google.com.au/books?id=6gsAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=%22have+received+from+you+a+note+in+which+you+state+that+you+are+engaged+in+a+project+concerning+controlled+missiles,+and+in+which+you+request+a+copy+of+a+paper+which+I+wrote+for+the+National+Defense+Research+Committee+during+the+war%22&source=bl&ots=u6UsotYzLj&sig=QKFlDSmBepkwLL_8b1s8mNctBZQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjTitHlrKPeAhWKtY8KHQBTAtEQ6AEwAHoECAEQAQ |archive-date=2018-10-26 |url-status=live }}</ref> urged scientists to consider the ethical implications of their work. After the war, he refused to accept any government funding or to work on military projects. The way Wiener's beliefs concerning nuclear weapons and the Cold War contrasted with those of von Neumann is the major theme of the book ''John Von Neumann and Norbert Wiener''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=John Von Neumann and Norbert Wiener: From Mathematics to the Technologies|last=Heims|first=Steve Joshua|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|year=1980|isbn=978-0262081054|location=Cambridge}}</ref>

Wiener was a participant of the [[Macy conferences]].

===Personal life===
In 1926 Wiener married Margaret Engemann, an assistant professor of modern languages at [[Juniata College]].<ref>{{MacTutor Biography|id=Wiener_Norbert}}</ref> They had two daughters.<ref>{{Cite journal|doi = 10.1063/1.2216967|title = Dark Hero of the Information Age: In Search of Norbert Wiener, the Father of Cybernetics, Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman, Basic Books, New York, 2005. $27.50 (423 pp.). ISBN 0-7382-0368-8|year = 2006|last1 = Brown|first1 = Alexander F.|journal = Physics Today|volume = 59|issue = 5|pages = 59–60|doi-access = free}}</ref>

Wiener admitted in his autobiography ''I Am a Mathematician: The Later Life of a Prodigy'' to abusing [[benzadrine]] throughout his life without being fully aware of its dangers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jacobs |first=Alan |date=2012-04-15 |title=The Lost World of Benzedrine |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/04/the-lost-world-of-benzedrine/255904/ |access-date=2022-11-25 |website=The Atlantic |language=en-US}}</ref>

Wiener died in March 1964, aged 69, in [[Stockholm]], from a heart attack. Wiener and his wife are buried at the Vittum Hill Cemetery in [[Sandwich, New Hampshire]].

===Awards and honors===
* Wiener was a Plenary Speaker of the [[International Congress of Mathematicians|ICM]] in 1936 at Oslo and in 1950 at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
* Wiener won the [[Bôcher Memorial Prize]] in 1933 and the [[National Medal of Science]] in 1963, presented by President Johnson at a White House Ceremony in January, 1964, shortly before Wiener's death.
* Wiener won the 1965 U.S. [[National Book Award]] [[National Book Award for Philosophy and Religion|in Science, Philosophy and Religion]] for ''[[God & Golem, Inc.]]: A Comment on Certain Points where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion''.<ref name="nba1965">[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1965 "National Book Awards – 1965"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190131201606/https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1965/ |date=2019-01-31 }}. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 2012-03-05.</ref>
* The [[Norbert Wiener Prize in Applied Mathematics]] was endowed in 1967 in honor of Norbert Wiener by MIT's mathematics department and is provided jointly by the [[American Mathematical Society]] and [[Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics]].
* The [[Norbert Wiener Award for Social and Professional Responsibility]] awarded annually by [[Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility|CPSR]], was established in 1987 in honor of Wiener to recognize contributions by computer professionals to socially responsible use of computers.
* The crater [[Wiener (crater)|Wiener]] on the [[Far side (Moon)|far side]] of the [[Moon]] is named after him.
* The Norbert Wiener Center for Harmonic Analysis and Applications, at the [[University of Maryland, College Park]], is named in his honor.<ref>{{cite web |title=Norbert Wiener Center for Harmonic Analysis and Applications |publisher=[[University of Maryland, College Park]] |url=http://www.norbertwiener.umd.edu/ |access-date=2009-09-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180404174135/http://www.norbertwiener.umd.edu/ |archive-date=2018-04-04 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* Robert A. Heinlein named a spaceship after him in his 1957 novel ''[[Citizen of the Galaxy]]'', a "Free Trader" ship called the ''Norbert Wiener'' mentioned in Chapter 14.
* The [[Norbert Wiener Center for Harmonic Analysis and Applications]] (NWC) in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Maryland, College Park is devoted to the scientific and mathematical legacy of Norbert Wiener.  The [http://www.norbertwiener.umd.edu/ NWC website] highlights the research activities of the center. Further, each year the Norbert Wiener Center hosts the February Fourier Talks, a two-day national conference displaying advances in pure and applied harmonic analysis in industry, government, and academia.

=== Doctoral students ===
* [[Shikao Ikehara]] (PhD 1930)
* [[Dorothy Walcott Weeks]] (PhD 1930)
* [[Norman Levinson]] (Sc.D. 1935)
* [[Brockway McMillan]] (PhD 1939)
* [[Abe Gelbart]] (PhD 1940)
* [[John P. Costas (engineer)]] (PhD 1951)
* [[Amar Bose]] (Sc.D. 1956)
* [[George Zames]] (Sc.D. 1960)
* [[Colin Cherry]] (PhD 1956)<ref>{{Cite book
| title = Proceedings of Symposia in Applied Mathematics Vol 52: Proceedings of the Norbert Wiener Centenary Congress 1994
| publisher = Michigan State University
| year = 1997
| isbn = 978-0-8218-0452-0
| editor-last = Mandrekar
| editor-first = V.
| location = Providence, Rhode Island
| pages = 541
| editor-last2 = Masani
| editor-first2 = P. R.
}}</ref>