Richard Martin edler von Mises(1883-1953) was born in Lemberg, Galicia (now Lvov, in the Ukraine). Mises was brought up Jewish and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1930. From 1901 to 1906 Mises attended the Technologische Hochschule in Vienna. In 1907 he became doctor of philosophy, and in 1908 was appointed as lecturer at the Deutsche Hochschule in Bruenn, Moravia (now Brno, in the Czech Republic). From 1909 to 1918 Mises was associate professor at the University of Strasbourg, France (then in Germany). Concurrently, in 1913 he gave the first university course on mechanics of powered flight. During World War I he served as flight officer in the Austrian-Hungarian Army. He organized the Austrian Airforce and built 600 h.p. airplanes. After the War, in 1919, Mises was employed as full professor at the T.H. in Dresden, Germany. From 1920 to 1933 he was professor at the University of Berlin and director of Institute fuer Angewandte Mathematic. In 1920 he founded the Zeitschrift fuer Angewandte Mathematic und Mechanik, and was its editor until 1933. In addition, Mises was an active member of the ‘Vienna Circle’ and a member of the Prussisch Akademie der Wissenschaft.
In 1933 Mises moved to Turkey and was full professor of pure and applicable mathematics at the University of Istanbul.
In 1939 R. M. Mises immigrated to the US. From 1939 to 1953 he was member of faculty at Harvard University, and in 1939 he was appointed professor of mathematics. From 1944 he was professor of aerodynamics and applicable mathematics at Gordon Mackay. In 1953 he became professor emeritus.
Concurrently 1940-1943 he lectured at M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); during 1948-1953 he was co-editor of Advances in Applicable Mechanics; worked as a civilian with US Army, US Navy and National Advisory Committee Aeronautics.
Mises was an authority on powered flight, doing research in aerodynamics, aeronautics, and also related fields of probability and statistics. He also did scholarly work in philosophy and literature. Mises was fellow of Institute Aeronautical Society; Institute of Mathematics and Statistics; of A.S.M.E. (American Society of Mechanical Engineers).
He received: Honorary Dr. from Universite Libre Bruexelles (1934); Technische Hochschulle of Vienna (1951); University of Istanbul (1952), and M.A. honoris causa from Harvard University (1946).
Mises’ main publications include Elemente der Technischen Hydromechanick (Leipzig, Berlin, 1914); Fluglehre (Berlin, Vienna, 1918). He was co-editor of Die Differential und Integralgleichungen der Mechanik und Physic (Braunschweig, 1925-27, 2nd ed: 1930- 1935, New York, 1943; Braunschweig, New York, 1961); Wahrscheinlichkeit, Statistik und Wahrheit (Vienna, 1928; 2nd ed. 1936; trans. London, New York, 1939). His Vorlesungen aus dem Gebiet der angewandten Mathematik appeared in Leipzig and Vienna in 1931; and in New York, in 1945; Kleines Lehrbuch des Positivismus was published in The Haag and Chicago in 1939; Cambridge, U.K, 1951; Fluid Dynamics (Providence, R.I, 1942; New York, 1971); Theory of Flight (New York, 1945).
His writings on other subjects include Briefe an Baronesse von O by Rainer Maria Rilke (New York, 1946); Briefe, Verse und Prosa aus dem Jahre 1896 (New York, 1946); Rilke in English, a Tentative Bibliography (Cambridge, Maas, 1946, 1947); Positivism: A Study in Human Understanding (Cambridge, Mass, New York, 1951; New York 1956). R. M. Mises also contributed a number of articles to professional journals.