Lester Randolph Ford Jr. (September 23, 1927 to February 26, 2017) was an American mathematician specializing in network flow problems, the son of mathematician Lester R. Ford Sr. His paper with D. R. Fulkerson on the maximum flow problem established the Ford-Fulkerson algorithm and the max-flow min-cut theorem, published as a technical report in 1954 and in a journal in 1956; their 1962 book Flows in Networks was published by Princeton University Press. In 1956 Ford developed the Bellman-Ford algorithm for finding shortest paths in graphs with negative weights, two years before Richard Bellman also published the algorithm. With Selmer M. Johnson he developed the Ford-Johnson algorithm for sorting, of theoretical interest for the problem of comparison sort with the fewest comparisons, which for twenty years required the minimum number of comparisons. In 1963, with his father, he published an innovative calculus textbook.
Facts
Connections
Invented By
L. R. Ford Jr. published the shortest-path algorithm in a 1956 RAND report that Richard Bellman independently formulated in 1958, giving the algorithm its joint name.
L. R. Ford Jr. co-developed the maximum flow algorithm with D. R. Fulkerson, published in 1956.
Sources
1. L. R. Ford Jr. (Wikidata)
Wikidata alias: Lester Randolph Ford junior
Lester Randolph Ford junior
Wikidata alias: Lester R. Ford junior
Lester R. Ford junior
Wikidata alias: Lester Ford junior
Lester Ford junior
P569 (date of birth): year 1927
1927
P569 (date of birth): 1927-09-23
1927-09-23
P570 (date of death): year 2017
2017
P570 (date of death): 2017-02-26
2017-02-26
View the SourceReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.