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{{short description|Greek-American physicist and mathematician (1915–1999)}}
{{Infobox scientist
|image             = Nicholas Metropolis cropped.PNG
|birth_name        = Nicholas Constantine Metropolis
|birth_date        = {{Birth date|1915|6|11}}
|birth_place       = [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], United States
|death_date        = {{Death date and age|1999|10|17|1915|6|11}}
|death_place       = [[Los Alamos, New Mexico|Los Alamos]], [[New Mexico]], United States
|fields            = [[Physicist]], [[Mathematician]]
|workplaces        = [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]]
|alma_mater        = [[University of Chicago]]
|known_for         = {{ubl|[[Monte Carlo method]]|[[Simulated annealing]]|[[Metropolis–Hastings algorithm]]}}
|awards            = [[Computer Pioneer Award]] <small>(1984)</small> 
}}
'''Nicholas Constantine Metropolis''' ([[Greek language|Greek]]: {{lang|grc|Νικόλαος Μητρόπουλος}};<ref>{{cite journal|last=ΒΑΡΒΟΓΛΗΣ|first=Χ|date=March 16, 2008|script-title=el:Ελληνική σφραγίδα στο πρώτο μηχανοργανωμένο πείραμα|url=http://www.tovima.gr/science/article/?aid=187490|location=Athens, Greece|access-date=December 6, 2012}}</ref> June 11, 1915 &ndash; October 17, 1999) was a Greek-American [[physicist]].<ref>[http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Metropolis.html Metropolis, Nicholas Constantine (1915–1999)] Eric Weisstein's World of Biography</ref>

Metropolis received his BSc (1937) and PhD in physics (1941, with [[Robert Mulliken]]) at the [[University of Chicago]]. Shortly afterwards, [[Robert Oppenheimer]] recruited him from Chicago, where he was collaborating with [[Enrico Fermi]] and [[Edward Teller]] on the first nuclear reactors, to the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]].

He arrived in Los Alamos in April 1943, as a member of the original staff of fifty scientists. He came back to Los Alamos in 1948 to lead the group in the Theoretical Division that designed and built the [[MANIAC I]] computer in 1952 that was modeled on the IAS machine, and the [[MANIAC II]] in 1957.

== Early life and education ==
Nicolas Metropolis was born on June 11, 1915, in Chicago, US. Metropolis received his BSc (1936) and PhD in chemical physics (1941) at the [[University of Chicago]]. During his PhD he worked with [[Robert Mulliken]]. After graduation, he worked as an instructor at the University of Chicago with [[James Franck]]. Shortly afterwards, in 1943, [[Robert Oppenheimer]] recruited him from Chicago for the [[Manhattan Project]], where he worked in [[Harold C. Urey]]'s group. Later he joined University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory and worked under [[Edward Teller]]'s supervision, who encouraged him to move into theoretical physics. At Los Alamos Metropolis worked together with [[Richard Feynman]] on "electromechanical devices used for hand computations".<ref name=obit/>

==After World War II==
After [[World War II]], he returned to the faculty of the University of Chicago as an assistant professor. He came back to Los Alamos in 1948 to lead the group in the theoretical division that designed and built the [[MANIAC I]] computer in 1952 that was modeled on the [[IAS machine]], and the [[MANIAC II]] in 1957. ([[John von Neumann]] thought this acronym too frivolous;<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/Q9JZ-3ThsjA Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20180927163256/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9JZ-3ThsjA Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=48&v=Q9JZ-3ThsjA| title = MANIAC | website=[[YouTube]]| date = 30 October 2017 }}{{cbignore}}</ref> Metropolis claims to have chosen the name "MANIAC" in the hope of stopping the rash of such acronyms for machine names, but may have instead further stimulated such use.)<ref name=obit>{{cite journal|title=Obituary: Nicholas Constantine Metropolis|author1=Balazs, N. L. |author2-link=John C. Browne |author2=Browne, J. C. |author3=Louck, J. D. |author4=Strottman, D. S. |journal=Physics Today|date=October 2000|volume=53|issue=10|pages=100–101|doi=10.1063/1.1325208|bibcode = 2000PhT....53j.100B|author1-link=Nandor Balazs |doi-access=free}}</ref> From 1957 to 1965 he was a full professor of physics at the University of Chicago and was the founding director of its [[Institute for Computer Research]]. In 1965 he returned to Los Alamos, where he was made a laboratory senior fellow in 1980.

<gallery mode=packed heights=180px>
File:Metropolis-nicholas.jpg|left|Metropolis's wartime [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] badge photo.
File:MANIAC Metropolis and Richardson.jpg|MANIAC project leader Nicholas Metropolis (standing) and the MANIAC’s chief engineer Jim Richardson in 1953.
File:Paul Stein and Nicholas Metropolis play “Los Alamos” chess against the MANIAC.jpg|Paul Stein and Nicholas Metropolis play [[Los Alamos chess]] against the MANIAC, a simplified version of the game without bishops. The computer still needed about 20 minutes between moves.
</gallery>

==Monte Carlo method==
At Los Alamos in the late 1940s and early 1950s a group of researchers led by Metropolis, including [[John von Neumann]] and [[Stanislaw Ulam]], developed the [[Monte Carlo method]].<ref>Nicolas Metropolis.[http://lib-www.lanl.gov/la-pubs/00326866.pdf The Beginning of the Monte Carlo Method]. ''[[Los Alamos Science]]'', No. 15, Page 125.</ref><ref name="ENIAC">{{cite journal |last1=Haigh |first1=Thomas |last2=Priestley |first2=Mark |last3=Rope |first3=Crispin |title=Los Alamos Bets on ENIAC: Nuclear Monte Carlo Simulations, 1947-1948 |journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing |date=2014 |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=42–63 |doi=10.1109/MAHC.2014.40 |s2cid=17470931 |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6880250|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This is a class of computational approaches that rely on repeated random sampling to compute their results, named in reference to Ulam's relative's love for the casinos of Monte Carlo. Metropolis was deeply involved in the very first use of the Monte Carlo method, rewiring the [[ENIAC]] computer to perform simulations of a nuclear core in 1948.<ref name="ENIAC"/> In 1953 Metropolis was credited as a co-author of a paper entitled ''[[Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines]]''.<ref name=metropolis>{{cite journal |author1=N. Metropolis |author2=A.W. Rosenbluth |author3=M.N. Rosenbluth |author4=A.H. Teller |author5=E. Teller  |name-list-style=amp |title=Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines |journal=Journal of Chemical Physics|volume=21|issue=6|pages=1087–1092|year=1953|doi=10.1063/1.1699114|bibcode = 1953JChPh..21.1087M |osti=4390578 |s2cid=1046577 |url=https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4390578 }}</ref> This landmark paper showed the first numerical simulations of a [[liquid]] and introduced a new Monte Carlo computational method for doing so.

In applications of the Monte Carlo method to problems in statistical mechanics prior to the introduction of the Metropolis algorithm, a large number of random configurations of the system would be generated, the properties of interest (such as energy or density) would be computed for each configuration, and then a [[weighted average]] computed where the weight of each configuration was its [[Boltzmann factor]], <math>e^{-E/kT}</math>, where <math>E</math> is the [[energy]], <math>T</math> is the [[temperature]], and <math>k</math> is the [[Boltzmann constant]]. The key contribution of the paper was the idea that

{{blockquote|Instead of choosing configurations randomly, then weighting them with exp(−''E''/''kT''), we choose configurations with a probability  exp(−''E''/''kT'') and weight them evenly.|Metropolis et al.|<ref name=metropolis />}}

The algorithm for generating samples from the [[Boltzmann distribution]] was later generalized by [[W.K. Hastings]] and has become widely known as the [[Metropolis–Hastings algorithm]].

In recent years a controversy has arisen as to whether Metropolis actually made significant contributions to the ''Equation of State Calculations ''paper.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gubernatis |first=J. E. |date=May 2005 |title=Marshall Rosenbluth and the Metropolis algorithm |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1231899 |journal=Physics of Plasmas |language=en |volume=12 |issue=5 |pages=057303 |doi=10.1063/1.1887186 |bibcode=2005PhPl...12e7303G |issn=1070-664X}}</ref>

==Associations and honors==
Metropolis was a member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], the [[Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics]] and the [[American Mathematical Society]]. In 1987 he became the first Los Alamos employee honored with the title "emeritus" by the [[University of California]].  Metropolis was also awarded the [[IEEE Computer Pioneer award|Pioneer Medal]] by the [[Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers]], and was a fellow of the [[American Physical Society]].

The Nicholas Metropolis Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Work in Computational Physics is awarded annually by the [[American Physical Society]].<ref>[http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/dissertation/metropolis.cfm Nicholas Metropolis Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Work in Computational Physics]</ref>

==Acting career==
Metropolis played the part of a scientist in the [[Woody Allen]] film ''[[Husbands and Wives]]'' (1992).<ref>{{IMDb name|id=0582604}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Metropolis had a son, Christopher, and two daughters, Penelope and Katharine. He was an avid skier and tennis player until his mid-seventies. He died at a nursing home in [[Los Alamos, New Mexico]].<ref>[http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/pa/News/101999.html Nick Metropolis dead at 84] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081107052529/http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/pa/News/101999.html |date=2008-11-07 }}. ''Los Alamos National Laboratory Daily News Bulletin''. Oct 19, 1999.</ref>

==Anecdotes==
In his memoirs,<ref>S. M. Ulam, Adventures of a mathematician, California University press</ref> [[Stanislaw Ulam]] remembers that a small group, including himself, Metropolis, [[John Williams Calkin|Calkin]], [[Emil Konopinski|Konopinski]], [[George Kistiakowsky|Kistiakowsky]], [[Edward Teller|Teller]] and [[John von Neumann|von Neumann]], spent several evenings at [[Los Alamos, New Mexico|Los Alamos]] playing poker. They played for very small sums, but: "Metropolis once described what a triumph it was to win ten dollars from John von Neumann, author of a famous treatise on game theory. He then bought his book for five dollars and pasted the other five inside the cover as a symbol of his victory." In another passage of his book, Ulam describes Metropolis as "a Greek-American with a wonderful personality."

==Erdős number==
Metropolis has an [[Erdős number]] of 2 and he enabled [[Richard Feynman]] to have an Erdős number of 3.<ref>{{cite web|title=My Erdős Number is Five|website=barbecuejoe.com|url=http://www.barbecuejoe.com/erdos.htm}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Stochastics]]
*[[ENIAC]]<ref>[http://history.siam.org/metropolis.htm The History of Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing]</ref>
*[[Colossus computer]]
*[[Von Neumann paradox]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
<!--
11. Ioannis A. Daglis: [http://proteus.space.noa.gr/%7Edaglis/images/pdf_files/other_pubs/geotropio_eniac.pdf{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Από τον ENIAC στα laptop και από τον Nicholas Metropolis στον Nicholas Negroponte – 60 χρόνια από την επανάσταση των κομπιούτερ [From ENIAC to Laptops and from Nicholas Metropolis to Nicholas Negroponte - 60 years from the computer revolution<nowiki>]</nowiki>], Geotropio (in Greek), December 2, 2006.
-->

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
*[http://manhattanprojectvoices.org/oral-histories/nicholas-metropolis-interview 1993 Audio Interview with Nicholas Metropolis by Richard Rhodes] Voices of the Manhattan Project
* [http://purl.umn.edu/107493 Oral history interview with Nicholas C. Metropolis], Conducted by [[William Aspray]] at [[Charles Babbage Institute]], University of Minnesota.  Metropolis, the first director of computing services at [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]], discusses [[John von Neumann]]'s work in computing. Most of the interview concerns activity at Los Alamos: how von Neumann came to consult at the laboratory; his scientific contacts there, including Metropolis, [[Robert Richtmyer]], and [[Edward Teller]]; von Neumann's first hands-on experience with punched card equipment; his contributions to shock-fitting and the implosion problem; interactions between and comparisons of von Neumann and [[Enrico Fermi]]; and the development of [[Monte Carlo method|Monte Carlo techniques]]. Other topics include: the relationship between [[Alan Turing]] and von Neumann; work on numerical methods for non-linear problems; and the [[ENIAC]] calculations done for Los Alamos.
* Francis Harlow and Nicolas Metropolis. [http://lib-www.lanl.gov/la-pubs/00285876.pdf Computing and Computers -- Weapons Simulation Leads to the Computer Era]. ''Los Alamos Science'' No. 7, Page 132.
* Herbert Anderson. [http://lib-www.lanl.gov/la-pubs/00326886.pdf Metropolis, Monte Carlo and the MANIAC]. ''Los Alamos Science'' No. 14, Page 69.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Metropolis, Nicholas C}}
[[Category:1915 births]]
[[Category:1999 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American mathematicians]]
[[Category:American computer scientists]]
[[Category:20th-century American physicists]]
[[Category:Greek academics]]
[[Category:Greek computer scientists]]
[[Category:20th-century Greek mathematicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Greek physicists]]
[[Category:Los Alamos National Laboratory personnel]]
[[Category:Manhattan Project people]]
[[Category:Monte Carlo methodologists]]
[[Category:University of Chicago alumni]]
[[Category:University of Chicago faculty]]
[[Category:Santa Fe Institute people]]
[[Category:American people of Greek descent]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society]]
[[Category:People from Chicago]]