Description Doesn’t Add Up

As a mathematician, I find John Wilkes’ review of Norman Macrae’s “John von Neumann: The Scientific Genius” (Aug. 18) offensive in the extreme. For example, readers who do not know who Von Neumann was will learn that “for all his well-earned recognition in his own lifetime, Von Neumann is all but unknown today.”

What could this possibly mean? He certainly is very well known to mathematicians and most scientists; indeed he is one of the best-known mathematicians in this century. The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary here in Los Angeles) has its most important award named after him.

MARIO TABOADA

USC Department of Mathematics