I am fascinated by the strength and beauty of the Hungarian mathematical school. During the twentieth century, Budapest and Szeged were important cultural and scientific centers for Central and Eastern Europe. Here are some few hungarian characters, with links pointing to Wikipedia, MathSciNet, Mathematical Genenealogy, and MacTutor projects. Do not hesitate to provide me corrections and informations by e-mail. It is also tempting to write a similar page dedicated to Polish or to Romanian Mathematicians... So if you have some spare time and curiosity, just do it!
Farkas Bolyai also known as Wolfgang Bolyai in Germany
(February 9, 1775 - November 20, 1856)
[Wikipedia, MacTutor, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, geometry.
A friend of
Carl Friedrich
Gauss.
János Bolyai (December 15, 1802 – January 27, 1860)
[Wikipedia,
MacTutor, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, non-Euclidean geometry. Son of Farkas Bolyai.
Gyula Farkas, Julius Farkas in English (March 28, 1847 -
December 27, 1930)
[Wikipedia, MacTutor, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, mechanics, thermodynamics, electrodynamics,
convexity
József Kürschák (March 14, 1864 - March 26, 1933)
[Wikipédia, MacTutor, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, classical geometry, matrix theory, theory of valuations.
Marcel Grossmann (April 9, 1878 - September 7, 1936)
[Wikipedia,
Genealogy,
MacTutor, MathSciNet]
Mathematician and physicist, geometry and general relativity.
A friend of A. Einstein.
Dénes Kőnig (September 21, 1884 – October 19, 1944)
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet, MacTutor, Genealogy]
Mathematician, graph theory.
Jenő Egerváry (April 16, 1891 – November 30, 1958)
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, combinatorial optimization, geometry, linear algebra, differential equations.
Lipót Fejér or Leopold Fejér (February 9, 1880 – October 15,
1959)
[Wikipedia, MacTutor, Genealogy,
MathSciNet]
Mathematician, harmonic analysis.
Frigyes Riesz or Frédéric Riesz in French (January 22, 1880 –
February 28, 1956)
[Wikipedia,
MacTutor, Genealogy, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, functional analysis, ergodic theory.
Tibor Radó (June 2, 1895 - Dec 12, 1965)
[Wikipedia, MacTutor, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, classical analysis, rigid surfaces and Plateau problem,
computer science
Marcel Riesz (November 16, 1886 – September 4, 1969)
[Wikipedia, MacTutor, Genealogy, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, classical analysis, partial differential equations,
divergent series, Clifford algebras, and number theory.
Young brother of
Frigyes Riesz.
Mihály Fekete or Michael Fekete in English (July 19, 1886 - May 13, 1953)
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, harmonic analysis, theory of approximation, number theory
Alfréd Haar (October 11, 1885 - March 16, 1933)
[Wikipedia, MacTutor, Genealogy, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, Haar measure, Haar wavelet, and Haar transform.
György Pólya or George Polya in English (December 13, 1887 –
September 7, 1985)
[Wikipedia, MacTutor, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, series, number theory, combinatorics, and probability,
didactics.
Cornelius Lanczos (February 2, 1893, June 25, 1974)
[Wikipedia,
MacTutor, MathSciNet]
Mathematician and physicist, numerical analysis, relativity.
Gábor Szegő (January 20, 1895 – August 7, 1985)
[Wikipedia, MacTutor, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, Toeplitz matrices and orthogonal polynomials.
Dénes Gábor, Dennis Gabor in English (June 5, 1900 – February
9, 1979)
[Wikipedia]
Physicist and inventor, holography, harmonic analysis and signal theory.
Nobel Prize in Physics.
Pál Jenő Wigner, Eugene Paul Wigner in English (November 17,
1902 – January 1, 1995)
[Wikipedia, MacTutor, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Physicist and mathematician, atomic physics, fundamental symmetry
principles.
Nobel Prize in Physics
János von Neumann, John von Neumann in English (December 28,
1903 - February 8, 1957)
[Wikipedia, MacTutor, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, quantum physics, functional analysis, set theory, topology,
economics, computer science, numerical analysis, hydrodynamics, statistics,
operator theory, etc.
László Kalmár (March 27, 1905 - August 2, 1976)
[Wikipedia,
MacTutor, Genealogy, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, logic and fundations, theoretical computer science.
Pál Turán or Paul Turan in English (August 28, 1910 -
September 26, 1976)
[Wikipedia,
MacTutor, Genealogy, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, number theory, group theory, approximation theory, graph
theory.
Tibor Grünwald or Tibor Gallai (July 15, 1912 – January 2, 1992)
[Wikipedia,
Genealogy,
MathSciNet]
Mathematician, combinatorics, graph theory.
Paul Erdős, or Pál Erdős, in English Paul Erdos or Paul Erdös
(March 26, 1913 – September 20, 1996)
[Wikipedia, MacTutor, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis,
approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory.
Alfréd Rényi (March 20, 1921 – February 1, 1970)
[Wikipedia, Genealogy, MathSciNet, MacTutor]
Mathematician, combinatorics, graph theory, probability theory, number
theory, information theory.
János D. Aczél (December 26, 1924 - )
[Wikipedia, Genealogy, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, functional equations.
András Hajnal (May 13, 1931 - )
[Wikipedia, Genealogy, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, set theory, combinatorics.
Aladár Heppes (March 10, 1933 - )
[MathSciNet]
Mathematician, discrete geometry, packing and covering.
László Fejes Tóth (12 March, 1915 - 17 March, 2005)
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, Convex and discrete geometry
Gábor Fejes Tóth (19?? - )
[MathSciNet]
Mathematician, Convex and discrete geometry
András Prékopa (September 11, 1929 - )
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, classical analysis, convex geometry
Imre Csiszár (February 7, 1938 - )
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, probability theory, information theory, convex analysis.
Gábor Halász (December 25, 1941 - )
[Wikipedia, Genealogy, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, functions of a complex variable, number theory
Gyula O. H. Katona (March 16, 1941 - )
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, combinatorics, computer science
János Komlós (May 23, 1942 - )
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, combinatorics, probability theory
He is the K of the KMT strong approximation
Zoltán Füredi (May 21, 1954 - )
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, combinatorics
Peter Frankl (March 26, 1953 - )
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet]
Mathematician and street performer, combinatorics
Endre Szemerédi (August 21, 1940 - )
[Wikipedia, Genealogy, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, combinatorics, number theory
Gábor Tusnády (December 21, 1941 - )
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, probability theory, statistics, computer science, linear
algebra.
He is the T of the KMT strong approximation
Juhász István (July 4, 1943 - )
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, general topology.
Miklós Simonovits (September 4, 1943 - )
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, combinatorics, graph theory, convex bodies, probability theory.
He is the S of the KLS conjecture.
Béla Bollobás (August 3, 1943 - )
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, functional analysis, combinatorics and graph theory, discrete
geometry.
Sándor Csörgő (1947 - )
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, probability theory, statistics
László Lovász (March 9, 1948 - )
[Wikipedia, Genealogy, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, combinatorics, computer science, probability theory.
He is the L in the KLS conjecture.
Péter Major (19?? - )
[MathSciNet]
Mathematician, probability theory and stochastic processes.
He is the M of the KMT strong approximation
Imre Z. Ruzsa (July 23, 1953 - )
[MathSciNet, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, number theory, probability theory
András Frank (19?? - )
[MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, graph theory, computer science
Kálmán Györy (19?? - )
[MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, combinatorics, number theory.
András Sárközy (19?? - )
[MathSciNet]
Mathematician, combinatorics, number theory.
Dénes Petz (19?? - )
[MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, probability theory, classical analysis, operator algebra,
free probability theory
Vilmos Totik (September 4, 1954 - )
[MathSciNet, Genealogy, Wikipedia]
Mathematician, approximation theory, orthogonal polynomials, potential theory
Katalin Marton (19?? - )
[MathSciNet]
Mathematician, probability theory, classical analysis
Bálint Tóth (1955 - )
[MathSciNet, Genealogy, Wikipedia]
Mathematician, probability theory, statistical mechanics
Gábor Lugosi (19?? - )
[MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, probability theory, computer science, game theory, statistics.
László Erdős (19?? - )
[MathSciNet]
Mathematician, quantum theory, statistical mechanics.
And so many others...
Hà Văn Vũ, Van H. Vu in English (19?? – )
[Wikipedia,
MathSciNet, Genealogy]
Mathematician, combinatorics, probability.
Abraham Wald (October 31, 1902 - December 13, 1950)
[Wikipedia, MacTutor, Genealogy, MathSciNet]
Mathematician, probability theory, statistics, econometrics
Paul Richard Halmos (March 3, 1916 - October 2, 2006)
[Wikipedia,
MathSciNet, Genealogy, MacTutor]
Mathematician, operator theory, ergodic theory, functional analysis.
Peter David Lax (May 1, 1926 - )
[Wikipedia, Genealogy, MathSciNet, MacTutor]
Mathematician, integrable systems, fluid dynamics and shock waves,
solitonic physics, hyperbolic conservation laws, scientific computing.
Abel Prize.
Rudolf Emil Kalman (May 19, 1930 - )
[Wikipedia, MathSciNet]
Mathematician and Engineer, system theory, electrical engineering by training,
signal theory and filtering.
Credits: Some data for the A. Heppes entry were provided by himself via e-mail. The János D. Aczél entry was suggested by Carl Wagner. The postage stamps were found on a web site by Jeff Miller dedicated to Postage Stamps. Note that in French, timbré (stamped) also means crazy.