History of Norbert Wiener

Question

I have to write an essay about Norbert Wiener. A bit about him in general, but mostly about his contribution to stochastic processes. Does anyone have any suggestions concerning materials I should use? For example some article or a book preferably (but not necessarily) available online.

Answer 1

If you ever have a history of mathematics question, the MacTutor History of Mathematics is a good starting point. Its articles can range from biographies (of which there are a LOT) to surveys of the history of a particular area of mathematics. They are also good with documenting their citations, which should give you additional leads; just scroll to the bottom of any article and you should find some interesting stuff.

Here is the link for Norbert Weiner's biographical entry in MacTutor: http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Wiener_Norbert.html.

Specific to Norbert Weiner, we should also note that Weiner wrote an autobiography, titled I am a Mathematician: the Later Life of a Prodigy. I've never read it, but I hear it has interesting stories. If you can find it in a nearby library then surely this will be your best source of information.