Mary Tsingou

Mary Tsingou (married name: Mary Tsingou-Menzel; born October 14, 1928)^[1] is an American physicist and mathematician of Greek ancestry.

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, her parents moved to the US from Bulgaria and were Greek. She spent several years in Bulgaria before returning to the US to attend high school and college. Menzel attended the University of Wisconsin where she majored in mathematics and education.

She is known in the computational physics community for having helped in the coding of the Fermi–Pasta–Ulam problem at the Los Alamos National Laboratory while working as a programmer in the MANIAC group.^[2][3] The result was an important stepping stone for chaos theory.

Recent calls have been made to rename the phenomenon the Fermi–Pasta–Ulam–Tsingou problem, to honour her contribution.^[4][5]

Publications

• Tuck J. L., Menzel M. T., The superperiod of the nonlinear weighted string (FPU) problem, Advances in Mathematics 9, 399–407 (1972).
• Joseph J. Devaney, Albert G. Petschek, Mary Tsingou Menzel. On the Production of Heavy Uranium Isotopes in a Very High Density Fast Neutron Flux (accessed Dec. 2012).Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory of the University of California, 1958; 17 pg.s .

See also

• Fermi–Pasta–Ulam problem

References

1. Mary Tsingou Menzel. IEEE Global History Network: Oral Histories. Accessed Nov 2012.
2. Fermi, E.; Pasta, J.; Ulam, S. (1955). "Studies of Nonlinear Problems" (PDF). (Accessed Nov 2012. ). Document LA-1940. Also appeared in Collected Works of Enrico Fermi, University of Chicago Press, Vol.II,978–988,1965. Note: In Fermi's case, this work is postmortem, published after his death in 1954.
3. Fermi, E. et. al (1955). _______ . Front page: "Work done by: E. Fermi J. Pasta S. Ulam M. Tsingou"; and footnote: “We wish to thank Miss Mary Tsingou .... for running the computations on the Los Alamos MANIAC machine, ...”
4. Fermi–Pasta–Ulam nonlinear lattice oscillations. Scholarpedia, doi:10.4249/scholarpedia.5538. Accessed Nov 2012.
5. T Dauxois, 2 Jan 2008. Fermi, Pasta, Ulam, and a mysterious lady . Accessed Nov 2012. Article published in Phys. Today 61, 55 (2008); ISSN 0031-9228 (print), American Institute of Physics. DOI:10.1063/1.2835154. Alternate address, SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service . Accessed Dec 2012. Also at arXiv:0801.1590.Accessed Dec 2012.

External links

• Pioneer Women in Chaos Theory. Frank Y. Wang.
• The Fermi–Pasta–Ulam “numerical experiment”: history and pedagogical perspectives. Dauxois, Peyrard and Ruffo.
• A not-so-mysterious woman, Los Alamos Monitor online.
• A wrong righted, Philosophy of Science Portal, A Venue for Discussions of Science, Philosophy and the Arts