Đuro Kurepa (

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (, ), also known as the Serbian script, (, ), is a standardized variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language. It originated in medieval Serbia and was significantly reformed in the 19th cen ...

: Ђуро Курепа, ; 16 August 1907 – 2 November 1993) was a Yugoslav and Serbian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

, university professor and academic. Throughout his life, Kurepa published over 700 articles, books, papers, and reviews and over 1,000 scientific reviews. He lectured at universities across Europe, as well as those in Canada, Cuba, Iraq, Israel, and the United States, and was quoted saying "I lectured at almost each of henineteen universities of he former

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

..."

Early life

Born as Đurađ Kurepa in Majske Poljane, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

to a Serb family. In English, his name was transliterated as Djuro Kurepa while in French he is often attributed as Georges Kurepa. Kurepa was the youngest of Rade and Anđelija Kurepa's fourteen children. His nephew was the mathematician Svetozar Kurepa. He began his schooling in Majske Poljane, continued his education in Glina, and graduated from high school in Križevci. He received a diploma in theoretical mathematics and physics from the University of Zagreb in 1931, and began work as an assistant in the teaching of mathematics the same year. Kurepa then went to the Collège de France and the University of Paris, where he received his doctoral diploma in 1935; his advisor was French mathematician Maurice René Fréchet, and his thesis was titled ''Ensembles ordonnés et ramifiés''.

Career

Kurepa continued to receive post-doctoral education at Warsaw University in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and the University of Paris. He became an assistant professor at the University of Zagreb in 1937, associate professor the next year, and assumed the position of full professor in 1948. After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and the formation of the

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

, he traveled to five universities in the United States:

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, Massachusetts, the University of Chicago in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, the branch of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

at Berkeley and the branch at

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton,

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, New York. Kurepa was an International Congress of Mathematicians Plenary Speaker in 1954 and 1958. In 1965, Kurepa shifted to the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it me ...

, where he focused on the mathematical fields of

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

and

set theory Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies Set (mathematics), sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory – as a branch of mathema ...

. Kurepa was a member of several organizations, including the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts. He was also the founder and president of the Society of Mathematicians and Physicists of Croatia, the founder and chief editor of the journal ''Mathematica Balkanica'', and the president of the Yugoslav National Committee for Mathematics, the Balkan Mathematical Society, and the Union of Yugoslav Societies of Mathematicians, Physicisists and Astronomers. He received the AVNOJ Award in 1976, and retired from the University of Belgrade in 1977. He published his scientific works in the most notable European and world scientific journals, including: '' Mathematische Annalen, Izvestiya Akademii nauk SSSR, Fundamenta Mathematicae, Acta Mathematica,

Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences (, ''Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences''), or simply ''Comptes rendus'', is a French scientific journal published since 1835. It is the proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences. It is currently split into seven sections, published o ...

, Bulletin de la Société Mathématique de France, Zeitschrift für mathematische Logik und Grundlagen der Mathematik, Journal of Symbolic Logic, Pacific Journal of Mathematics.''

Death and legacy

On 1 November 1993, Kurepa was robbed and beaten after retrieving his pension from a bank. He was then hidden from view under a set of stairs. He succumbed to his injuries on 2 November 1993 in a Belgrade emergency ward. He is interred in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens in the Belgrade New Cemetery. As a mathematician, he is known especially for his works on set theory and general topology. Kurepa influenced set theory in several ways, including lending his name to the Kurepa tree. According to Kajetan Šeper, Kurepa's colleague from the University of Zagreb:

Professor Kurepa was not only the professional mathematician and teacher, but he was a scientist, philosopher, and humanist as well, in the true sense of these words. He was the founder and pioneer in mathematical logic and the foundations of mathematics in Croatia, and modern mathematical theories in Croatia and Yugoslavia. Generally speaking, he was the catalyzer, the initiator, and the bearer of mathematical science.

According to the Mathematics Genealogy Project, Kurepa supervised 27 students, including analytic number theorist Aleksandar Ivić, set theorist Stevo Todorčević and topologist Ljubisa D.R. Kocinac.

Awards

* AVNOJ award, 1976 * Bernard Bolzano Charter,

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, 1981 * Order of Labour, 1965 * Order of Merits for the People with a golden star, 1979

Selected works

; Books * ''Teorija skupova'', Belgrade, 1951 * ''ŠTO SU SKUPOVI I KAKVA IM JE ULOGA'', Zagreb, 1960 * ''Viša algebra - knjiga prva'', Belgrade, 1969 * ''Viša algebra - knjiga druga'', Belgrade, 1969 * ''Selected Papers of Đuro Kurepa'', Belgrade, 1996–12 ; Scientific works * * ''SUR LES ENSEMBLES ORDONNES DENOMBRABLES'', Zagreb, 1948 * ''O REALNIM FUNKCIJAMA U OBITELjI SKUPOVA RACIONALNIH BROJEVA'', Zagreb, 1953 * ''On universal ramified sets, Zagreb'', 1963 * ''Monotone mappings between some kinds of ordered sets'', Zagreb, 1964 * ''Publikovani naučni radovi Đura Kurepe 1961 - 1976'', Belgrade, 2012

References

External links

* (thesis in Paris)
Biography of Kurepa

Dimitrić, Radoslav. Academician, Professor Ðuro Kurepa (1907--1993). The Review of Modern Logic 1994. 4:401-403
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurepa, Djuro 1907 births 1993 deaths 1993 murders in Serbia People from Glina, Croatia Serbs of Croatia Set theorists Serbian mathematicians University of Warsaw alumni University of Paris alumni Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb alumni Academic staff of the University of Zagreb Academic staff of the University of Belgrade Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Yugoslav mathematicians People murdered in Serbia Serbian murder victims Deaths by beating in Europe Unsolved murders in Serbia Burials at Belgrade New Cemetery