Roger B. Lazarus

Roger B. Lazarus, a mathematical physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory for 35 years, died on Jan. 27 in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Lazarus helped pioneer the development of computers for large-scale calculations and led the computer division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He was 81. At the Los Alamos laboratory, Lazarus evolved the manual calculations of the Manhattan project into computerized numerical analysis. In 1951, his first assignment was to estimate yields of atomic explosions using a method proposed by Hans Bethe and a primitive computer. He soon moved his calculations to a more powerful device - the first stored-memory computer, MANIAC, which was designed by Nick Metropolis and others. This computer, with less processing power than today's hand-held devices, filled an entire room. Lazarus recalled in a speech in 2002 that visitors were impressed by the caption on a glass box near MANIAC – "In case of emergency, break glass." Inside the box was an abacus. 1n 1954, Lazarus joined the MANIAC group as physicist-consultant in exchange for preferred time on the computer. Collaborating with Dave Woods, he developed computer code called HENRE that researchers built on for over 20 years. He and Mark Wells developed the first major model of a nuclear meltdown. He worked with IBM on the development of Stretch, the first solid-state computer. In 1968, Lazarus was selected to found the Computing Division at Los Alamos and served for several years as its first director. He retired in 1986. A life-long outdoorsman, Lazarus was an avid tennis player, skier, hiker, and gardener. He was a regular with the Los Alamos Wednesday hikers and took yearly solo backpacking trips in the Grand Canyon. He took great pleasure cultivating his small orchard, as well as baking bread, reading voraciously, and visiting regularly with a wide circle of family and friends. After a forest fire in 2000 destroyed their home, Lazarus and his wife chose to stay and rebuild next to the orchard, which remained unharmed. Known for his wit and good humor, Lazarus was a community theater actor and a sought-after lead in comedy roles for the Los Alamos Little Theater and Don Juan community theater productions. He was a worthy adversary in regular poker games that often included Carson Mark, Paul Stein, Stan Ulam, Nick Metropolis, George Cowan and other well-known Los Alamos mathematicians and physicists. Originally from New York City, Lazarus entered Harvard in 1942, served in the Pacific theater in World War II, and returned to Harvard to complete his studies, receiving his doctorate in theoretical physics in 1951. He and his wife, Peggy Gross Lazarus, recently celebrated their 60th anniversary. A beloved and admired husband and father, Lazarus is survived by his wife, Peggy; five children, John of Boston, David of New York City, Katherine of Irvine, California, Virginia of Evanston, Illinois, and Elizabeth of Boulder, Colorado; and eight grandchildren, Ginger, Brian, Sarah, Sam, Nathan and Maya Lazarus, and Leilani and Jay Wong. There will be a memorial service Saturday, March 10, 2007, from 2-4 PM at the Unitarian Church, 1738 N. Sage, Los Alamos, NM (telephone 505-662-2346).