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{{short description|American mathematician}}
{{unreferenced|date=November 2012}}
{{more citations needed|date=February 2014}}
 
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Robert R Coveyou
| birth_date = February 9, 1915
| birth_place = [[Petoskey, Michigan|Petoskey]], [[Michigan]], US
| death_date = {{death date|mf=yes|1996|2|19}}
| death_place = [[Oak Ridge, Tennessee|Oak Ridge]], [[Tennessee]], US
| residence = [[United States|U.S.]]
| nationality = [[United States|American]]
| field = [[Mathematics]]<br /> [[Computer science]]
| work_institutions = [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]]
| alma_mater = [[University of Chicago]]<br />[[University of Tennessee]]
| known_for = [[Pseudorandom number generator|Pseudo-Random Number Generators]], [[Medical physics|Medical Physics]]
}}
 
'''Robert R. (Bob) Coveyou''' (February 9, 1915 – February 19, 1996) was an American research mathematician workingwho worked at the [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]].<ref name="atomicheritage">{{cite web|title=Robert Coveyou Mathematician and Health Physicist, X-10 Graphite Reactor|url=https://www.atomicheritage.org/profile/robert-coveyou|accessdate=22 September 2020}}</ref> He also taught mathematics part-time for several years at [[Knoxville College]] and worked at the [[International Atomic Energy Agency]] in Vienna, Austria, while on leave from the [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]] from 1968 until 1971.
 
An expert on [[Pseudorandom number generator|pseudo-random number generators]], today he is probably best known for the title of an article published inaround 1970: "Random Number Generation Isis Tootoo Important to Bebe Left to Chance".<ref>{{cite book |last=Coveyou,|first=R.R. Robert|editor1=Agins |editor-first=B.R. "Random| Numbereditor2=Kalos Generation| Iseditor2-first=M.H. Too|title=A Importantcollection toof Bepapers Leftpresented toby Chanceinvitation at the Symposia on Applied Probability and Monte Carlo Methods and Modern Aspects of Dynamics sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research at the 1967 National Meeting of SIAM in Washington," ''D.C. | publisher=SIAM | series=Studies in Applied Mathematics'', III| (1970),volume=3 pp.|date=1969 70-111,|pages=70–111 |chapter=Random Number Generation is too Important to be Left to Chance }}</ref> <ref>Peterson, Ivars. ''The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari.'' Wiley, NY, 1998. (pp. 178) ISBN {{isbn|0-471-16449-6}}</ref>
 
HeCoveyou was an original member of the small group of radiation protection specialists at the University of Chicago assembled under the leadership of [http://www[Ernest O.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev25-34/chapter2sb5.htm Ernest Wollan]] in 1942/43 and moved to [[Oak Ridge, Tennessee]] as part of the [[Manhattan Project]].<ref name="atomicheritage"/>
 
After the end of [[World War II]] he returned to Chicago to finish his undergraduate degree in Mathematics, and in the following year he received his mastersmaster's degree from the University of Tennessee, both while employed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. CoveyouHe then returned to the laboratory for the remainder of his career, retiring in 1976.
 
In the early 1950s, Coveyou was one of the scientists and engineers involved in the early introduction of computers to the [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]] and has been credited with naming the first computer housed at the laboratory: the ORACLE ('''''O'''ak '''R'''idge '''A'''utomatic '''C'''omputer and '''L'''ogical '''E'''ngine''). In preparation for working on the computer in Oak Ridge, Coveyouhe spent two stretches of several weeks each at [[Remington Rand]] Corporation in New York City working with their staff to learn how they used the new [[UNIVAC]] computer.
 
Coveyou was a tournament chess player, and was [http://tnchess.us/?page_id=259 Tennessee State Champion] eight times. He is a member of the [http://tnchess.us/?page_id=138 Tennessee Chess Hall of Fame], having been inducted with the inaugural class in 1990. OneHe ofalso Coveyou'smentored memorablemany chessyoung experiencesOak wasRidge hostingand thenTennessee 13-year old [[Bobby Fischer]] at his hotel room inchess Clevelandplayers, Ohio,with afteran Fischerunusual hadand justeffective wonapproach theto 1957tutoring U.S.young Open. Coveyouplayers, Fischer,emphasizing andthe Edmar Mednis, a chess master from New York and friendmastery of Fischer's playedsimple informalend games ofbefore chesstackling formore hourscomplex after the conclusionaspects of the tournamentgame, lasting into the early morning hours of the nextincluding dayopenings.
 
One of Coveyou's memorable chess experiences was hosting 13-year-old [[Bobby Fischer]] at his hotel room in Cleveland, Ohio, after Fischer had just won the 1957 [[U.S. Open Chess Championship|U.S. Open]]. Coveyou, Fischer, and Edmar Mednis, a chess master from New York and friend of Fischer's, played informal games of chess for hours after the conclusion of the tournament, lasting into the early morning hours of the next day.
Bob Coveyou was also active politically and in the civil rights movement.
 
Bob Coveyou was also active politically and in the civil rights movement. He helped lead an effort to establish Scarboro High School in the [[African-American neighborhood]] of Oak Ridge. Prior to the school's opening, African American children there had had to bus to Knoxville, 30 miles away, to attend Austin High School.<ref>{{cite web|last=Smith|first=D. Ray|title=Education in Oak Ridge – Pre - Oak Ridge and Early - Oak Ridge Schools, part 2|url=http://smithdray1.net/historicallyspeaking/2006/11-21-06%20Education%20in%20Oak%20Ridge%20-%20pre%20Oak%20Ridge%20part%202.pdf|accessdate=2 January 2014}}</ref> The school operated from 1950 until Oak Ridge High School was desegregated in the fall of 1955.
 
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
 
==External links==
{{Persondata
* [https://info.ornl.gov/sites/publications/Files/Pub57692.pdf HISTORY OF THE ENGINEERING PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS DIVISION 1955–1993]
| NAME = Coveyou, Robert R.
{{authority control}}
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Bob Coveyou
* [https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_290783 Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 90-105, Science Service Records, Image No. SIA2008-0295]
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = American mathematician
 
| DATE OF BIRTH = February 9, 1915
| PLACE OF BIRTH = Petoskey, Michigan, U.S.A.
| DATE OF DEATH = February 19, 1996
| PLACE OF DEATH = [[Oak Ridge, Tennessee|Oak Ridge]], [[United States|U.S.]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coveyou, Robert}}
[[Category:1915 births]]
[[Category:1996 deaths]]
[[Category:AmericanOak mathematiciansRidge National Laboratory people]]
[[Category:People from Emmet CountyPetoskey, Michigan]]
[[Category:20th-century American mathematicians]]
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