George E. Kimball
Encyclopedia
George Elbert Kimball was an American
professor of quantum chemistry
, and a pioneer of operations research
algorithms during World War II
.
in 1906 and he grew up in New Britain
, Connecticut
."George Elbert Kimball: Operations Research Innovator, 1906-1967", by Philip M. Morse
, 1973 His interest in chemistry
was due to his high school chemistry teacher. He spent a year at Phillips Exeter Academy
and in 1924 he enrolled at Princeton university
. Apparently his father was of the opinion that there were already too many graduates of Yale university
in Connecticut. Kimball later claimed that he chose the chemistry program at Princeton because it allowed him to study not only chemistry, but also an equal amount of physics and mathematics, which were also of interest to him. Kimball received his bachelor's degree
in 1928, and at that time his main interest was quantum chemistry
, which at that time was a field that was still in its infancy, following significant theoretical breakthroughs in quantum mechanics
in 1925.
He returned to Princeton's chemistry department to be a graduate student on a graduate fellowship and worked under Hugh Taylor
. Kimball's doctoral thesis
was on quantum mechanics of the recombination
of hydrogen
atom
s, and he received his Ph.D. in 1932.
During his last years, Kimball suffered from cardiac illness which became more severe, and he died on December 6, 1967 while in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
on business.
George E. Kimball was married to chemist Alice Hunter, whom he met at MIT, and they had four children together.
in 1932, he stayed at Princeton as instructor. In 1933, he was awarded a National Research Fellowship in chemistry and went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) for two years (1933–1935). While a fellow in MIT's chemistry department, he spent much of his time working in the physics department where his collaborators included the trio John C. Slater
, Philip M. Morse
(who had been a graduate student at Princeton simultaneously with Kimball, but in physics) and Julius Stratton.
During the summer of 1935, Kimball returned to Princeton, to work with Henry Eyring
. After a year when Kimball taught physics at Hunter College
, he became assistant professor at the Chemistry Department of Columbia University
. One of his students during his early time at Columbia was Isaac Asimov
, who remembered getting a zero from him in physical chemistry. During the years 1936–1941, Kimball published nine papers on reaction rates
and electrochemical
surface effects. He also developed and taught courses in quantum chemistry, and supervised graduate student research. The book Quantum Chemistry written by Kimball, Henry Eyring
and John Walter, was begun around 1934 and published in 1944. Although periodically occupied with other tasks from 1942, he became a full professor of chemistry at Columbia in 1947 and remained there until 1956.
attacks on transatlantic
shipping, Philip M. Morse was tasked with organizing a scientific group in the US Navy to analyze anti-submarine warfare
tactics
. Kimball was one of the first persons recruited by Morse, and within the year he became Morse's Deputy Director. During the war, the group was called the Operations Research Group (ORG), and was later known as the Operations Evaluation Group, US Navy, and had grown to number some seventy analysts when the war ended in 1945. The ORG's work has become known as the pioneering application of OR in the US, after OR originated in the United Kingdom
a few years earlier through pioneering efforts by Patrick Blackett
and other scientists. During the war, there was liaison between US and UK analysts in service of RAF Coastal Command
.
The ORG's work also extended into the South Atlantic and into the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
, where the US Navy was carrying out a submarine offensive against Japan
's supply lines and where defenses against Kamikaze
attacks was high on the agenda. At the end of the war some of the ORG members stayed on to document the lessons of the Group's work. Morse and Kimball wrote Methods of Operations Research, which was initially a classified
report, but which was later released for general publication and published by MIT Press in 1951, and this book received a lot of attention. Kimball received the Presidential Citation of Merit for his work during World War II, and in 1954 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
.
. He did however continue to be involved in OR activities, including civilian OR applications in industry and the public sector. He continued as a consultant to the Operations Evaluation Group, and when OR expanded into other services and countries he participated in the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group
(WSEG), formed in 1949 to carry out OR work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff
and the United States Secretary of Defense
, as well in the organizing of the NATO Advisory Panel on Operations Research. He participated in the founding of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) in 1952 and was a member of ORSA's first council. He was elected ORSA's president in 1964.
In the 1950s, Kimball started to work part time for the management consulting
firm Arthur D. Little
and its OR division. In 1956, he left his professorship at Columbia and became a full-time employee of Arthur D. Little, initially as Science Advisor and from 1961 as Vice President
.
Kimball was a Unitarian Universalist
and he did service as trustee and president of the Unitarian congregation in Hackensack, New Jersey
.
and George Shortley were awarded.
After ORSA merged with The Institute for Management Science (TIMS) to form the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
(INFORMS), the George E. Kimball Medal has been awarded by INFORMS.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
professor of quantum chemistry
Quantum chemistry
Quantum chemistry is a branch of chemistry whose primary focus is the application of quantum mechanics in physical models and experiments of chemical systems...
, and a pioneer of operations research
Operations research
Operations research is an interdisciplinary mathematical science that focuses on the effective use of technology by organizations...
algorithms during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Biography
George E. Kimball was born in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in 1906 and he grew up in New Britain
New Britain
New Britain, or Niu Briten, is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from the island of New Guinea by the Dampier and Vitiaz Straits and from New Ireland by St. George's Channel...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
."George Elbert Kimball: Operations Research Innovator, 1906-1967", by Philip M. Morse
Philip M. Morse
Philip McCord Morse , was an American physicist, administrator and pioneer of operations research in World War II. He is considered to be the father of operations research in the U.S.- Biography :Morse graduated from the Case School of Applied Science in 1926 with a B.S. in physics. He earned his...
, 1973 His interest in chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
was due to his high school chemistry teacher. He spent a year at Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
and in 1924 he enrolled at Princeton university
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
. Apparently his father was of the opinion that there were already too many graduates of Yale university
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in Connecticut. Kimball later claimed that he chose the chemistry program at Princeton because it allowed him to study not only chemistry, but also an equal amount of physics and mathematics, which were also of interest to him. Kimball received his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in 1928, and at that time his main interest was quantum chemistry
Quantum chemistry
Quantum chemistry is a branch of chemistry whose primary focus is the application of quantum mechanics in physical models and experiments of chemical systems...
, which at that time was a field that was still in its infancy, following significant theoretical breakthroughs in quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
in 1925.
He returned to Princeton's chemistry department to be a graduate student on a graduate fellowship and worked under Hugh Taylor
Hugh Stott Taylor
Hugh Stott Taylor was an English chemist primarily interested in catalysis. In 1928, in a landmark contribution to catalytic theory, Taylor suggested that a catalyzed chemical reaction is not catalyzed over the entire solid surface of the catalyst but only at certain ‘active sites’ or centers.He...
. Kimball's doctoral thesis
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
was on quantum mechanics of the recombination
Genetic recombination
Genetic recombination is a process by which a molecule of nucleic acid is broken and then joined to a different one. Recombination can occur between similar molecules of DNA, as in homologous recombination, or dissimilar molecules, as in non-homologous end joining. Recombination is a common method...
of hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
atom
Atom
The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...
s, and he received his Ph.D. in 1932.
During his last years, Kimball suffered from cardiac illness which became more severe, and he died on December 6, 1967 while in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
on business.
George E. Kimball was married to chemist Alice Hunter, whom he met at MIT, and they had four children together.
Early work (1932–1942)
After having missed out on a National Research Fellowship in physicsPhysics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
in 1932, he stayed at Princeton as instructor. In 1933, he was awarded a National Research Fellowship in chemistry and went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(MIT) for two years (1933–1935). While a fellow in MIT's chemistry department, he spent much of his time working in the physics department where his collaborators included the trio John C. Slater
John C. Slater
John Clarke Slater was a noted American physicist who made major contributions to the theory of the electronic structure of atoms, molecules and solids. This work is of ongoing importance in chemistry, as well as in many areas of physics. He also made major contributions to microwave electronics....
, Philip M. Morse
Philip M. Morse
Philip McCord Morse , was an American physicist, administrator and pioneer of operations research in World War II. He is considered to be the father of operations research in the U.S.- Biography :Morse graduated from the Case School of Applied Science in 1926 with a B.S. in physics. He earned his...
(who had been a graduate student at Princeton simultaneously with Kimball, but in physics) and Julius Stratton.
During the summer of 1935, Kimball returned to Princeton, to work with Henry Eyring
Henry Eyring
Henry Eyring was a Mexican-born American theoretical chemist whose primary contribution was in the study of chemical reaction rates and intermediates....
. After a year when Kimball taught physics at Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
, he became assistant professor at the Chemistry Department of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. One of his students during his early time at Columbia was Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
, who remembered getting a zero from him in physical chemistry. During the years 1936–1941, Kimball published nine papers on reaction rates
Chemical kinetics
Chemical kinetics, also known as reaction kinetics, is the study of rates of chemical processes. Chemical kinetics includes investigations of how different experimental conditions can influence the speed of a chemical reaction and yield information about the reaction's mechanism and transition...
and electrochemical
Electrochemistry
Electrochemistry is a branch of chemistry that studies chemical reactions which take place in a solution at the interface of an electron conductor and an ionic conductor , and which involve electron transfer between the electrode and the electrolyte or species in solution.If a chemical reaction is...
surface effects. He also developed and taught courses in quantum chemistry, and supervised graduate student research. The book Quantum Chemistry written by Kimball, Henry Eyring
Henry Eyring
Henry Eyring was a Mexican-born American theoretical chemist whose primary contribution was in the study of chemical reaction rates and intermediates....
and John Walter, was begun around 1934 and published in 1944. Although periodically occupied with other tasks from 1942, he became a full professor of chemistry at Columbia in 1947 and remained there until 1956.
World War II work (1942–1945)
In 1942, after the US had entered World War II and was faced with the problem of Nazi German U-boatU-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
attacks on transatlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
shipping, Philip M. Morse was tasked with organizing a scientific group in the US Navy to analyze anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of naval warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines....
tactics
Military tactics
Military tactics, the science and art of organizing an army or an air force, are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. Changes in philosophy and technology over time have been reflected in changes to military tactics. In...
. Kimball was one of the first persons recruited by Morse, and within the year he became Morse's Deputy Director. During the war, the group was called the Operations Research Group (ORG), and was later known as the Operations Evaluation Group, US Navy, and had grown to number some seventy analysts when the war ended in 1945. The ORG's work has become known as the pioneering application of OR in the US, after OR originated in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
a few years earlier through pioneering efforts by Patrick Blackett
Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett
Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, Baron Blackett OM CH FRS was an English experimental physicist known for his work on cloud chambers, cosmic rays, and paleomagnetism. He also made a major contribution in World War II advising on military strategy and developing Operational Research...
and other scientists. During the war, there was liaison between US and UK analysts in service of RAF Coastal Command
RAF Coastal Command
RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force . Founded in 1936, it was the RAF's premier maritime arm, after the Royal Navy's secondment of the Fleet Air Arm in 1937. Naval aviation was neglected in the inter-war period, 1919–1939, and as a consequence the service did not receive...
.
The ORG's work also extended into the South Atlantic and into the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
The Pacific Ocean theatre was one of four major naval theatres of war of World War II, which pitted the forces of Japan against those of the United States, the British Commonwealth, the Netherlands and France....
, where the US Navy was carrying out a submarine offensive against Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
's supply lines and where defenses against Kamikaze
Kamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
attacks was high on the agenda. At the end of the war some of the ORG members stayed on to document the lessons of the Group's work. Morse and Kimball wrote Methods of Operations Research, which was initially a classified
Classified information
Classified information is sensitive information to which access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of persons. A formal security clearance is required to handle classified documents or access classified data. The clearance process requires a satisfactory background investigation...
report, but which was later released for general publication and published by MIT Press in 1951, and this book received a lot of attention. Kimball received the Presidential Citation of Merit for his work during World War II, and in 1954 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
.
Post-war work(1945–1967)
After World War II and Methods of Operations Research, Kimball returned to Columbia and resumed his research and teaching in theoretical chemistryTheoretical chemistry
Theoretical chemistry seeks to provide theories that explain chemical observations. Often, it uses mathematical and computational methods that, at times, require advanced knowledge. Quantum chemistry, the application of quantum mechanics to the understanding of valency, is a major component of...
. He did however continue to be involved in OR activities, including civilian OR applications in industry and the public sector. He continued as a consultant to the Operations Evaluation Group, and when OR expanded into other services and countries he participated in the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group
Weapons Systems Evaluation Group
The Weapons Systems Evaluation Group was formed in 1949 to carry out Operational Research work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States Army and the United States Secretary of Defense. The group oversaw the appraisal of weapons used during the Korean War...
(WSEG), formed in 1949 to carry out OR work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff is a body of senior uniformed leaders in the United States Department of Defense who advise the Secretary of Defense, the Homeland Security Council, the National Security Council and the President on military matters...
and the United States Secretary of Defense
United States Secretary of Defense
The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
, as well in the organizing of the NATO Advisory Panel on Operations Research. He participated in the founding of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) in 1952 and was a member of ORSA's first council. He was elected ORSA's president in 1964.
In the 1950s, Kimball started to work part time for the management consulting
Management consulting
Management consulting indicates both the industry and practice of helping organizations improve their performance primarily through the analysis of existing organizational problems and development of plans for improvement....
firm Arthur D. Little
Arthur D. Little
Arthur D. Little is an international management consulting firm originally headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and formally incorporated by that name in 1909 by Arthur Dehon Little, an MIT chemist who had discovered acetate. Arthur D. Little pioneered the concept of contracted...
and its OR division. In 1956, he left his professorship at Columbia and became a full-time employee of Arthur D. Little, initially as Science Advisor and from 1961 as Vice President
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...
.
Kimball was a Unitarian Universalist
Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a...
and he did service as trustee and president of the Unitarian congregation in Hackensack, New Jersey
Hackensack, New Jersey
Hackensack is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States and the county seat of Bergen County. Although informally called Hackensack, it was officially named New Barbadoes Township until 1921. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 43,010....
.
The George E. Kimball Medal
Following the death of George E. Kimball, ORSA instituted a medal in his honor, which is awarded annually. It was first awarded in 1974, when Thomas E. Caywood, Philip M. MorsePhilip M. Morse
Philip McCord Morse , was an American physicist, administrator and pioneer of operations research in World War II. He is considered to be the father of operations research in the U.S.- Biography :Morse graduated from the Case School of Applied Science in 1926 with a B.S. in physics. He earned his...
and George Shortley were awarded.
After ORSA merged with The Institute for Management Science (TIMS) to form the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences is an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research and management science...
(INFORMS), the George E. Kimball Medal has been awarded by INFORMS.