1913-1996

Hungarian Mathematician

Paul Erdös was widely assumed by his colleagues to be one of the most brilliant, and perhaps most eccentric, mathematicians of the twentieth century. Erdös established the field of discrete mathematics, which set the stage for the emergence of computer science. Although Erdös studied varied fields of mathematics, it was number theory that occupied him most of his life. He was widely known for posing simply stated mathematical problems that required complex solutions involving the relationships between numbers—then simplifying the complex solutions his colleagues had labored to deliver.

Erdös was born in Budapest, Hungary, to a mother and father who were both mathematics teachers. His genius presented itself early when, at three years of age, Erdös multiplied three-digit numbers in his head, and found negative numbers for himself when he subtracted 250 degrees from...