Peter Lax, Pre-eminent Cold War Mathematician, Dies at 98

Peter Lax, whose work at the intersection of mathematical theory and application redefined how scientists used new computing technology to solve the technical problems of the Cold War, from designing aircraft and weapons to predicting the weather, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 99.

His death was confirmed by his son Dr. James D. Lax, who said the cause was a cardiac amyloid.

As the computer age was dawning, Dr. Lax, a native of Hungary, led the way in figuring out how the new technology could be harnessed to mathematics for the purpose of analyzing complex phenomena in nature, technology and warfare. His theoretical breakthroughs and leadership in developing large-scale computing infrastructure produced new ways to characterize and predict phenomena as varied as storm fronts, shock waves and stock prices.

In 2005, he was the first applied mathematician to win the Abel Prize — in mathematics, the closest equivalent to the Nobel Prize. Presented in a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, the prized recognized his contributions to the field of partial differential equations, the mathematics of things that move and flow. He “has been described as the most versatile mathematician of his generation,” the prize citation said.

Dr. Lax received the Abel Prize in mathematics in 2005 in a ceremony in Oslo, Norway. At right was Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon. In the field of mathematics, the Abel is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize.Credit…Knut Falch/Associated Press

Dr. Lax’s engagement with the new field of electronic computing grew out of his wartime weapons research. Working with the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, N.M., in 1945-46, he had performed intricate calculations for the development of the atomic bomb.

His work at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University rapidly altered the trajectory of the computing field, supporting new uses of computers in the analysis of complex systems.