John von Neumann

John von Neumann was one of the most versatile mathematicians of the twentieth century, with lasting work in logic, game theory, quantum mechanics, and computing. His 1945 report on the EDVAC set out the stored-program architecture, in which instructions and data share the same memory, the design nearly all later computers followed. He was a leading consultant to the Manhattan Project, working on the implosion method for the plutonium bomb, and later pushed the development of the hydrogen bomb and intercontinental missiles. He died of cancer in 1957, his final years shadowed by the weapons work he had helped drive.