 Stanislaw Marcin Ulam (1909–1984) was an American mathematician of Polish Jewish origin, who participated in the Manhattan Project and originated the Teller–Ulam design of thermonuclear weapons.He also invented nuclear pulse propulsion and developed a number of mathematical tools in number theory, set theory, ergodic theory and algebraic topology.Ulam was born in Lwów Galicia to a wealthy Polish-Jewish banking and timber-processing family who were part of the large Jewish minority population of the city.