Lajos Szilassi (born 1942 in

Szentes Szentes is a town in south-eastern Hungary, Csongrád county, near the Tisza river. The town is a cultural and educational center of the region. Notable people * Árpád Balázs (born 1937), classical music composer * János Bácskai 1954. novembe ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

) was a professor of mathematics at the

University of Szeged , mottoeng = Truth. Bravery. Freedom. , established = , type = Public research university , founder = Emperor Franz Joseph I , affiliation = European University Association, Science Without Borders, Confucius Institute , budget = US$220 mi ...

who worked in projective and

non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean geo ...

, applying his research to computer generated solutions of geometric problems.Lajos Szilassi is 70
Department of Geometry, Bolyai Institute, Faculty of Science, University of Szeged

Biography

Szilassi obtained his high school diploma in 1966 at the Bolyai Institute of the

József Attila University , mottoeng = Truth. Bravery. Freedom. , established = , type = Public research university , founder = Emperor Franz Joseph I , affiliation = European University Association, Science Without Borders, Confucius Institute , budget = US$220 mi ...

, majoring in mathematical representation geometry. He had been teaching for six years in a secondary school, then he joined the Department of Mathematics at Gyula Juhász Teacher Training College. In 1981 he received a bachelor's associate degree. He then received his Doctor rerum naturalium degree at the University of Szeged (1978) under

László Lovász László Lovász (; born March 9, 1948) is a Hungarian mathematician and professor emeritus at Eötvös Loránd University, best known for his work in combinatorics, for which he was awarded the 2021 Abel Prize jointly with Avi Wigderson. He ...

with the dissertation ''Polyhedra bounded by pairwise adjacent faces''. He received his PhD in 2006. From 1973 until he retired in 2007 he was a professor of mathematics at the University of Szeged. He worked in the areas of geometry, elementary mathematics, and computer science, with an emphasis on computer generated solutions of geometric problems.

Szilassi Polyhedron

In 1977 Szilassi discovered a

toroidal polyhedron In geometry, a toroidal polyhedron is a polyhedron which is also a toroid (a -holed torus), having a topological genus () of 1 or greater. Notable examples include the Császár and Szilassi polyhedra. Variations in definition Toroidal polyhedr ...

with seven hexagonal faces, in which each pair of faces share an edge. The new construction was soon dubbed the

Szilassi polyhedron In geometry, the Szilassi polyhedron is a nonconvex polyhedron, topologically a torus, with seven hexagonal faces. Coloring and symmetry The 14 vertices and 21 edges of the Szilassi polyhedron form an embedding of the Heawood graph onto the surf ...

.Szilassi, Lajos (1986),
Regular toroids
(PDF), Structural Topology, 13: 69–80 This is mathematically significant because the

tetrahedron In geometry, a tetrahedron (plural: tetrahedra or tetrahedrons), also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertex corners. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the o ...

and the Szilassi polyhedron are the ''only'' two known polyhedra in which each face shares an edge with each other face.

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis ...

featured the Szilassi polyhedron in his November 1978

Mathematical Games column Over a period of 24 years (January 1957 – December 1980), Martin Gardner wrote 288 consecutive monthly "Mathematical Games" columns for ''Scientific American'' magazine. During the next years, through June 1986, Gardner wrote 9 more columns, ...

in ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

''. On April 29, 2002 the French government installed a sculpture of the "Szilassi-Polyhedron" in the town of

Beaumont-de-Lomagne Beaumont-de-Lomagne (; Languedocien: ''Bèumont de Lomanha'') is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Geography The river Gimone runs through the town. History Beaumont-de-Lomagne, bastide, was ...

, the birthplace of

Fermat Pierre de Fermat (; between 31 October and 6 December 1607 – 12 January 1665) was a French mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality. In particular, he i ...

, on the 400th anniversary of his birth. There are also large scale renderings of the polyhedron in

Canberra, Australia Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The c ...

and in

Whitehall, Michigan Whitehall is a city in Muskegon County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,706 at the 2010 census. The city is located in the southwest corner of Whitehall Township. Montague is its neighbor. It is located on White Lake (act ...

.An abstract sculpture located in Whitehall, Michigan
Waymarking.com

References

External links

*
On some regular toroids
Lajos Szilassi

publications
Lajos Szilassi {{DEFAULTSORT:Szilassi, Lajos University of Szeged alumni Academic staff of the University of Szeged Living people 20th-century Hungarian mathematicians 21st-century Hungarian mathematicians People from Szentes 1942 births