Marketplace Morning Report Interviews 'Martian's Daughter' Marina von Neumann Whitman
In an interview with Marketplace Morning Report's Jeremy Hobson, Marina von Neumann Whitman, author of The Martian's Daughter: A Memoir, discusses her struggle to emerge from the shadow of her larger-than-life parent, John von Neumann (one of the five Hungarian scientific geniuses dubbed "the Martians" by their colleagues) and describes the challenges of "a woman trying to climb the ranks of intellectual and corporate power." The interview delves into issues of discrimination in the workplace and its ongoing yet covert prevalency today.
John von Neumann is often hailed as the greatest mathematician of the twentieth century and even as the greatest scientist after Einstein. He was a key figure in the Manhattan Project; the inventor of game theory; the pioneer developer of the modern stored-program electronic computer; and an adviser to the top echelons of the American military establishment. In The Martian's Daughter, Whitman, who was the first woman to serve on the President's Council of Economic Advisers, reveals intimate details about the famed scientist and explores how the cosmopolitan environment in which she was immersed, the demanding expectations of her parents, and the ambition they instilled in her shaped her life and work.
