George Szekeres
Encyclopedia
George Szekeres AM
(ˈsɛkɛrɛʃ; 29 May 1911 – 28 August 2005) was a Hungarian-Australian mathematician
.
, Hungary
as Szekeres György and received his degree in chemistry
at the Technical University of Budapest. He worked six years in Budapest as an analytical chemist. He married Esther Klein
in 1936. Being Jewish, the family had to escape from the Nazi
persecution so Szekeres took a job in Shanghai
, China
. There they lived through World War II
, the Japanese occupation and the beginnings of the Communist revolution. Their son, Peter, was born in Shanghai.
, Australia
that he gladly accepted. After all the troubles he had, he began flourishing as a mathematician. A few years later, his daughter Judy was born. In 1963, the family moved to Sydney
, where Szekeres took a position at the University of New South Wales
, and taught there until his retirement in 1975. He also devised problems for secondary school mathematical olympiads run by the university where he taught, and for a yearly undergraduate competition run by the Sydney University Mathematics Society.
Szekeres worked closely with many prominent mathematicians throughout his life, including Paul Erdős
, Esther Szekeres
(née Esther Klein), Paul Turán, Béla Bollobás
, Ronald Graham
, Alf van der Poorten, Miklós Laczkovich
, and John Coates.
is an example of how mathematics pervaded George's life. During 1933, George and several other students met frequently in Budapest to discuss mathematics. At one of these meetings, Esther Klein proposed the following problem:
After allowing George, Paul Erdős
, and the other students to scratch their heads for some time, Esther explained her proof. Subsequently George and Paul wrote a paper (1935) that generalises this result; it is regarded as one of the foundational works in the field of combinatorial geometry. Erdős dubbed the original problem the "Happy Ending" problem because it resulted in George and Esther's marriage in 1937.
George and Esther died within an hour of each other, on the same day, 28 August 2005, in Adelaide
, Australia.
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(ˈsɛkɛrɛʃ; 29 May 1911 – 28 August 2005) was a Hungarian-Australian mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
.
Early years
Szekeres was born in BudapestBudapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
as Szekeres György and received his degree in chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
at the Technical University of Budapest. He worked six years in Budapest as an analytical chemist. He married Esther Klein
Esther Szekeres
Esther Szekeres was a Hungarian-Australian mathematician. Esther Szekeres's Erdős number is 1.- Biography :...
in 1936. Being Jewish, the family had to escape from the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
persecution so Szekeres took a job in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. There they lived through World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Japanese occupation and the beginnings of the Communist revolution. Their son, Peter, was born in Shanghai.
Career
In 1948, he was offered a position at the University of AdelaideUniversity of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
that he gladly accepted. After all the troubles he had, he began flourishing as a mathematician. A few years later, his daughter Judy was born. In 1963, the family moved to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, where Szekeres took a position at the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
, and taught there until his retirement in 1975. He also devised problems for secondary school mathematical olympiads run by the university where he taught, and for a yearly undergraduate competition run by the Sydney University Mathematics Society.
Szekeres worked closely with many prominent mathematicians throughout his life, including Paul Erdős
Paul Erdos
Paul Erdős was a Hungarian mathematician. Erdős published more papers than any other mathematician in history, working with hundreds of collaborators. He worked on problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory...
, Esther Szekeres
Esther Szekeres
Esther Szekeres was a Hungarian-Australian mathematician. Esther Szekeres's Erdős number is 1.- Biography :...
(née Esther Klein), Paul Turán, Béla Bollobás
Béla Bollobás
Béla Bollobás FRS is a Hungarian-born British mathematician who has worked in various areas of mathematics, including functional analysis, combinatorics, graph theory and percolation. As a student, he took part in the first three International Mathematical Olympiads, winning two gold medals...
, Ronald Graham
Ronald Graham
Ronald Lewis Graham is a mathematician credited by the American Mathematical Society as being "one of the principal architects of the rapid development worldwide of discrete mathematics in recent years"...
, Alf van der Poorten, Miklós Laczkovich
Miklós Laczkovich
Miklós Laczkovich is a Hungarian mathematician mainly noted for his work on real analysis and geometric measure theory. His most famous result is the solution of Tarski's circle-squaring problem in 1989.- Career :...
, and John Coates.
Honours
- In 1968 he was the winner of the Thomas Ranken Lyle MedalThomas Ranken Lyle MedalThe Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal is awarded at most every two years by the Australian Academy of Science to a mathematician or physicist for his or her outstanding research accomplishments. It is named after Thomas Ranken Lyle, an Irish mathematical physicist who became a professor at the University of...
of the Australian Academy of ScienceAustralian Academy of ScienceThe Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The Academy is modelled after the Royal Society and operates under a Royal Charter; as such it is...
. - In May 2001, a festschriftFestschriftIn academia, a Festschrift , is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during his or her lifetime. The term, borrowed from German, could be translated as celebration publication or celebratory writing...
was held in honour of his ninetieth birthday at the University of New South WalesUniversity of New South WalesThe University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
. - In January 2001, he was awarded an Australian Centenary Medal 'for service to Australian society and science in pure mathematics.'
- In 2001, the Australian Mathematical SocietyAustralian Mathematical SocietyThe Australian Mathematical Society was founded in 1956 and is the national society of the mathematics profession in Australia. One of the Society's listed purposes is to promote the cause of mathematics in the community by representing the interests of the profession to government. The Society...
created the George Szekeres MedalGeorge Szekeres MedalThe George Szekeres Medal is awarded by the Australian Mathematical Society for outstanding research contributions over a fifteen-year period. This award, established in 2001, is given biennially in even-numbered years for work that has been carried out primarily in Australia.This medal...
in his honour. - In June 2002, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM)Order of AustraliaThe Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
'for service to mathematics and science, particularly as a contributor to education and research, to the support and development of the University of New South Wales Mathematics Competition and the Australian Mathematical Olympiad Team.'
The Happy Ending problem
The so-called Happy Ending problemHappy Ending problem
The Happy Ending problem is the following statement:This was one of the original results that led to the development of Ramsey theory....
is an example of how mathematics pervaded George's life. During 1933, George and several other students met frequently in Budapest to discuss mathematics. At one of these meetings, Esther Klein proposed the following problem:
- Given five points in the plane in general positionGeneral positionIn algebraic geometry, general position is a notion of genericity for a set of points, or other geometric objects. It means the general case situation, as opposed to some more special or coincidental cases that are possible...
, prove that four of them form a convexConvex polygonIn geometry, a polygon can be either convex or concave .- Convex polygons :A convex polygon is a simple polygon whose interior is a convex set...
quadrilateralQuadrilateralIn Euclidean plane geometry, a quadrilateral is a polygon with four sides and four vertices or corners. Sometimes, the term quadrangle is used, by analogy with triangle, and sometimes tetragon for consistency with pentagon , hexagon and so on...
.
After allowing George, Paul Erdős
Paul Erdos
Paul Erdős was a Hungarian mathematician. Erdős published more papers than any other mathematician in history, working with hundreds of collaborators. He worked on problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory...
, and the other students to scratch their heads for some time, Esther explained her proof. Subsequently George and Paul wrote a paper (1935) that generalises this result; it is regarded as one of the foundational works in the field of combinatorial geometry. Erdős dubbed the original problem the "Happy Ending" problem because it resulted in George and Esther's marriage in 1937.
George and Esther died within an hour of each other, on the same day, 28 August 2005, in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, Australia.
See also
- Powerful numberPowerful numberA powerful number is a positive integer m such that for every prime number p dividing m, p2 also divides m. Equivalently, a powerful number is the product of a square and a cube, that is, a number m of the form m = a2b3, where a and b are positive integers. Powerful numbers are also known as...
- Szekeres snarkSzekeres snarkIn the mathematical field of graph theory, the Szekeres snark is a snark with 50 vertices and 75 edges. It was the fifth known snark, discovered by George Szekeres in 1973....
- Generalized continued fractionGeneralized continued fractionIn complex analysis, a branch of mathematics, a generalized continued fraction is a generalization of regular continued fractions in canonical form, in which the partial numerators and partial denominators can assume arbitrary real or complex values....
- Kruskal–Szekeres coordinates
- Szekeres–Wilf number
- Schröder's equation