Richard E. Bellman

Richard Ernest Bellman (August 26, 1920 to March 19, 1984) was an American applied mathematician who introduced dynamic programming in 1953 and made important contributions across other fields of mathematics, including biomathematics. He is known for the Bellman equation, the Bellman-Ford algorithm, the concept of the curse of dimensionality, the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation and stochastic dynamic programming, and he was a professor at the University of Southern California. His honors include the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1979, the John von Neumann Theory Prize in 1976, the Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award established in his name in 1984, fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1975, and membership in both the National Academy of Engineering in 1977 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1983.