Richard Ernest Bellman (1920–1984) was an applied mathematician, celebrated for his invention of dynamic programming in 1953, and important contributions in other fields of mathematics. 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 3 - Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with the mathematical techniques typically used in the application of mathematical knowledge to other domains. ... In computer science, dynamic programming is a method for reducing the runtime of algorithms exhibiting the properties of overlapping subproblems and optimal substructure, described below. ...

Bellman studied mathematics at Brooklyn College (B.A. 1941) and the University of Wisconsin (M.A.). He then went to work for a Theoretical Physics Division group in Los Alamos. In 1946 he received his Ph.D. at Princeton. He was a professor at the University of Southern California, a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1975), and a member of the National Academy of Engineering (1977). He was awarded the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1979, "For contributions to decision processes and control system theory, particularly the creation and application of dynamic programming. His key work is the Bellman-Equation." For other meanings of mathematics or math, see mathematics (disambiguation). ... Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York. ... The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public university located in Madison, Wisconsin. ... Theoretical physics employs mathematical models and abstractions, as opposed to experimental processes, in an attempt to understand Nature. ... Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerial view from 1995. ... Princeton University is a coeducational private university located in Princeton, New Jersey. ... The University of Southern California (commonly referred to as USC, SC, Southern California and incorrectly as Southern Cal[1]), located in the downtown district of Los Angeles, California, was founded in 1880, making it Californias oldest private research university. ... The House of the Academy, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Founded in 1964, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in the United States provides engineering leadership in service to the nation. ... The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE (pronounced as eye-triple-ee) is an international non-profit, professional organization incorporated in the State of New York, United States. ...

His first Ph.D. student was Austin Esogbue, who is currently a professor in Georgia Institute of Technology in the department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is a public, coeducational university located in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and part of the University System of Georgia. ...

See also

• Bellman equation
• Bellman-Ford algorithm
• Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation
• "Curse of dimensionality", a term coined by Bellman

Bellman equations occur in dynamic programming. ... The Bellman-Ford algorithm computes single-source shortest paths in a weighted digraph (where some of the edge weights may be negative). ... The Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation is a partial differential equation which is central to optimal control theory. ... Curse of dimensionality is a term coined by Richard Bellman applied to the problem caused by the rapid increase in volume associated with adding extra dimensions to a (mathematical) space. ...

References

• Bellman, Richard, Eye of the Hurricane, an Autobiography, World Scientific Publishing, 1984.
• IEEE History Center - Legacies
• Int. Trans. in Op. Res. article on Bellman
• Harold J. Kushner's speech when accepting the Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award
• S. Dreyfys, Richard Bellman on the Birth of Dynamic Programming