George E. Kimball

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George Elbert Kimball (born July 12, 1906 in Chicago , † December 6, 1967 in Pittsburgh ) was an American theoretical chemist and pioneer of operations research .

Life

Kimball studied chemistry at Princeton University and specialized early in the field of theoretical chemistry and quantum chemistry .

In 1932 he graduated from Princeton University with a Ph.D. with the work The five atom problem in quantum mechanics and its application to the hydrogenchlorine reaction . The supervisor of the work was Henry Eyring , with whom he published one of the first monographs on quantum chemistry in 1944. From 1933 to 1935 he was on a National Research Fellowship in chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he worked in the group of John C. Slater . In 1935 he returned to Princeton. He then went to Hunter College , where he gave lectures on theoretical physics. At the end of the 1930s he became an assistant professor at Columbia University , where he worked until 1956, with a few interruptions, mainly due to the Second World War. In 1947 he became a full professor .

When Philip M. Morse , whom he knew from his time at MIT, asked him in 1942 to join the United States Navy Task Force on Anti-Submarine Tactics, he accepted and became Deputy Director of the within the following year Operations Research Group (ORG). This group dealt with all aspects of the destruction of enemy submarines and the protection of their own armed forces, with Kimball being one of the first to use simulation models ( Monte Carlo simulation ) in military operations research . Kimball worked on various secret projects, such as working with Morse on a top secret report on the implications of the atomic bomb for the Navy after the Smyth Report was published . After the end of the war, he was awarded the Presidential Medal for Merit for his services in military research .

After 1945, in contrast to many other scientists, he resumed work in his original field - quantum chemistry - and published numerous articles. From 1950 he was active in the field of operations research at Arthur D. Little (ADL) management consultancy . He was one of those who saw early on how this field could be used to solve industrial and commercial problems. In 1952 he was a founding member of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) and later its president. In 1956 he left Columbia University and went to the ADL company, where he became scientific director of the ADL Trident Project, an anti-submarine system analysis project for the US Navy, from 1963.

In 1941 Kimball became a Fellow of the American Physical Society . In 1954 he was accepted into the National Academy of Sciences and in 1957 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Honors

The George E. Kimball Medal has been awarded annually by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) since 1974.

Fonts (selection)

  • Henry Eyring, John Walter, George Kimball: Quantum Chemistry . John Wiley, New York 1944, pp. vi, 394 .
  • Philip M. Morse, George E. Kimball: Methods of Operations Research . Technology Press, J. Wiley, Cambridge, Mass., New York 1951, ISBN 0-486-43234-3 , pp. vii, 155 .
  • George E. Kimball: The electronic structure of diamond . In: Journal of Chemical Physics . tape 3 , no. 9 , 1935, pp. 560 ff ., doi : 10.1063 / 1.1749729 .
  • George E. Kimball: Directed valence . In: Journal of Physical Chemistry . tape 8 , no. 2 , 1940, p. 188 ff ., doi : 10.1063 / 1.1750628 .
  • George E. Kimball: Some industrial applications of military operations research methods . In: Operations Research . tape 5 , no. 2 , 1957, p. 201 ff ., doi : 10.1287 / opre.5.2.201 .

literature

  • Philip M. Morse: George E. Kimball . In: Operations Research . tape 16 , no. 4 , 1968, p. 871-874 , doi : 10.1287 / opre.16.4.871 .
  • John F. Magee: George E. Kimball . In: Arjang A. Assad, Saul I. Gass (Ed.): Profiles in Operations Research - Pioneers and Innovators (=  International Series in Operations Research & Management Science ). tape 147 . Springer, New York 2011, ISBN 978-1-4419-6280-5 , pp. 123-141 .
  • Philip M. Morse: George Elbert Kimball, 1906-1967 . In: Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences . tape 43 , 1973, p. 129–146 ( online [PDF; accessed August 6, 2018]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ George Elbert Kimball at Theoretical Chemistry Genealogy Project
  2. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter K. (PDF; 670 kB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Accessed August 19, 2018 (English).
  3. ↑ George E. Kimball Medal of INFORMS
personal data
SURNAME Kimball, George E.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kimball, George Elbert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American theoretical chemist and operations research pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1967
Place of death Pittsburgh