Paul erdös is seventy

It is beyond the scope of this short note to describe adequately, for those who do not already know, either the significance of Paul Erdos’ own mathematical work, or his enormous influence on contemporary mathematics. He has become something of a legend throughout the whole mathematical world and we can only just add small fragments of our own knowledge to this phenomenon. To start in a conventional way, here is a short curriculum vitae. He was born in 1913 in Budapest, Hungary. He was a late child of middle class parents. They were both mathematics high school teachers, intelligent and enlightened people. It was soon discovered that Paul was a child prodigy. He could add and multiply six digit numbers when he was six, and beyond his apparent abilities in mathematics, it was his personality that showed, in these early days, the future achievements to come. His parents helped to develop his gifts with understanding and loving care. He was a sensitive child, not tolerating discipline well, with a penetrating interest in all natural sciences, literature, and social problems. He had a strong moral feeling, hating injustice and inequality, and believed in absolute truth-both in science and everyday life. This attitude never changed during his life and also had a strong influence on his mathematical activities. After some hesitation whether to become a physician, he chose to take up mathematics in 1930 at the University Piumany Peter in Budapest, where Leopold Fejer held the chair of mathematics. He obtained his first famous result as a first year student: he gave an elementary proof of Chebyshev’s theorem. While absorbing mathematical knowledge at a tremendous rate, his truly extroverted personality also became evident. He acquired many friends and soon became the spiritual leader of a small group of enthusiastic young mathematicians, among them Paul Turan, Tibor Gallai, and George Szekeres, just to mention a few. By 1934, he