Albert Hibbs

Who is Albert Hibbs?

Albert Roach Hibbs was a noted mathematician known worldwide as "the voice of JPL". He was born in Akron, Ohio on October 19, 1924 and died on February 24, 2003 of complications following heart surgery.

In 1949, Hibbs and Roy Walford took time off, from graduate school and medical school respectively, to go to Reno and Las Vegas to beat the casinos at roulette. Studying biases in the roulette wheels, they made thousands of dollars, variously estimated between $6,500 and $42,000. According to Albert Hibbs himself, during an episode of You Bet Your Life on which he was a contestant, he made "about $12,000."

Hibbs earned his Ph.D. in 1955 under Richard Feynman, with a dissertation titled "The Growth of Water Waves Due to the Action of the Wind". He also transcribed and edited Feynman's lectures in quantum electrodynamics, and coauthored their book on path integrals and quantum mechanics. He called upon his mentor at least once to provide recommendations to NASA for his selection as a science astronaut in the Apollo program. In 1967, Hibbs was chosen to become an astronaut on the Apollo 25 moon mission, but the program was canceled before it would have been launched.