{
  "id": 13791801,
  "title": "Mary Tsingou's work took 50 years to credit",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/11/mary-tsingous-work-took-50-years-to-credit",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-11T19:34:15.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Economic Times",
    "slug": "the-economic-times",
    "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/meet-mary-tsingou-mathematician-who-died-at-97-after-waiting-50-years-for-credit-for-a-physics-breakthrough-that-reduced-her-role-to-a-footnote/articleshow/134876897.cms"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Mary Tsingou, a 97-year-old mathematician and computer programmer, passed away in August 2026 at her home in Los Angeles. In the 1950s, she played a crucial role in a landmark physics experiment at Los Alamos National Laboratory, but her significant contributions were initially unrecognized. Born in Milwaukee in 1928, Tsingou was drawn to mathematics from a young age. After moving around due to her family's circumstances, she earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1951. Despite her talent, she faced limited opportunities as a woman in education and eventually joined Los Alamos as part of a team of \"human computers\" in 1952. Initially, her work involved manual calculations, which she found tedious. However, her skills led her to program MANIAC I, an early electronic computer, where she made a groundbreaking discovery. Working alongside mathematician Stanislaw Ulam and physicists John Pasta and Enrico Fermi, Tsingou used MANIAC I to simulate particles connected by springs. To her surprise, the system displayed structured patterns and periodically returned to its original state, a phenomenon known as the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem. This finding, initially published in 1955 without acknowledging Tsingou, later became known as the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou problem (FPUT), highlighting her crucial role in advancing nonlinear science and chaos theory. Despite being named only in a footnote for her computational work, Tsingou's contribution gained wider recognition in 2008 when her programming efforts were highlighted by French physicist Thierry Dauxois. Tsingou worked at Los Alamos for nearly 40 years, contributing to various research projects before retiring in 1992. She is survived by her two daughters, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}