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 Avi Wigderson ( he, אבי ויגדרזון; born 9 September 1956) is an Israeli mathematician and computer scientist. He is the Herbert H. Maass Professor in the school of mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jerse ...

. He was the president of the

International Mathematical Union The International Mathematical Union (IMU) is an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the field of mathematics across the world. It is a member of the International Science Council (ISC) and supports ...

from 2007 to 2010 and the president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 2014 to 2020. In

graph theory In mathematics, graph theory is the study of ''graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are conn ...

, Lovász's notable contributions include the proofs of Kneser's conjecture and the

Lovász local lemma In probability theory, if a large number of events are all independent of one another and each has probability less than 1, then there is a positive (possibly small) probability that none of the events will occur. The Lovász local lemma allows one ...

, as well as the formulation of the Erdős–Faber–Lovász conjecture. He is also one of the eponymous authors of the LLL lattice reduction algorithm.

Early life and education

Lovász was born on March 9, 1948, in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Hungary. Lovász attended the Fazekas Mihály Gimnázium in Budapest. He won three gold medals (1964–1966) and one silver medal (1963) at the

International Mathematical Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except i ...

. He also participated in a Hungarian game show about math prodigies. Paul Erdős helped introduce Lovász to

at a young age. Lovász received his

Candidate of Sciences Candidate of Sciences (russian: кандидат наук, translit=kandidat nauk) is the first of two doctoral level scientific degrees in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It is formally classified as UNESCO's ISCED level 8, "d ...

(C.Sc.) degree in 1970 at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His advisor was

Tibor Gallai Tibor Gallai (born Tibor Grünwald, 15 July 1912 – 2 January 1992) was a Hungarian mathematician. He worked in combinatorics, especially in graph theory, and was a lifelong friend and collaborator of Paul Erdős. He was a student of Dénes K� ...

. He received his first doctorate ( Dr.Rer.Nat.) degree from Eötvös Loránd University in 1971 and his second doctorate (Dr.Math.Sci.) from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1977.

Career

From 1971 to 1975, Lovász worked at Eötvös Loránd University as a research associate. From 1975 to 1978, he was a

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de con ...

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 m ...

, and then served as a professor and the Chair of Geometry there until 1982. He then returned to Eötvös Loránd University as a professor and the Chair of Computer Science until 1993. Lovász was a professor at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

from 1993 to 1999, when he moved to the Microsoft Research Center where he worked as a senior researcher until 2006. He returned to Eötvös Loránd University where he was the director of the Mathematical Institute (2006–2011) and a professor in the Department of Computer Science (2006–2018). He retired in 2018. Lovász was the president of the

between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2010. In 2014, he was elected the president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) and served until 2020.

Research

In collaboration with Erdős in the 1970s, Lovász developed complementary methods to Erdős's existing probabilistic graph theory techniques. This included the

, which has become a standard technique for proving the existence of rare

graph Graph may refer to: Mathematics *Graph (discrete mathematics), a structure made of vertices and edges **Graph theory, the study of such graphs and their properties *Graph (topology), a topological space resembling a graph in the sense of discre ...

s. Also in graph theory, Lovász proved Kneser's conjecture and helped formulate the Erdős–Faber–Lovász conjecture. With

Arjen Lenstra Arjen Klaas Lenstra (born 2 March 1956, in Groningen) is a Dutch mathematician, cryptographer and computational number theorist. He is currently a professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) where he heads of the Laborator ...

and

Hendrik Lenstra Hendrik Willem Lenstra Jr. (born 16 April 1949, Zaandam) is a Dutch mathematician. Biography Lenstra received his doctorate from the University of Amsterdam in 1977 and became a professor there in 1978. In 1987 he was appointed to the faculty o ...

in 1982, Lovász developed the

LLL algorithm LLL may refer to: Businesses and organisations *L3 Technologies, an American defense contractor formerly with the NYSE stock symbol LLL *La Leche League, an organization that promotes breastfeeding Education * LL.L (''Legum Licentiatus''), a ...

for approximating points in lattices and reducing their bases. The LLL algorithm has been described by

Gil Kalai Gil Kalai (born 1955) is the Henry and Manya Noskwith Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, Professor of Computer Science at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, and adjunct Professor of mathematics ...

as "one of the fundamental algorithms" and has been used in several practical applications, including

polynomial factorization In mathematics and computer algebra, factorization of polynomials or polynomial factorization expresses a polynomial with coefficients in a given field or in the integers as the product of irreducible factors with coefficients in the same dom ...

algorithms and

cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...

Awards

Lovász was awarded the Pólya Prize in 1979, the

Fulkerson Prize The Fulkerson Prize for outstanding papers in the area of discrete mathematics is sponsored jointly by the Mathematical Optimization Society (MOS) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS). Up to three awards of $1,500 each are presented at e ...

in 1982 and 2012, the

Brouwer Medal The Brouwer Medal is a triennial award presented by the Royal Dutch Mathematical Society and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. The Brouwer Metal gets its name from Dutch mathematician L. E. J. Brouwer and is the Netherlands’ most presti ...

in 1993, the

Wolf Prize The Wolf Prize is an international award granted in Israel, that has been presented most years since 1978 to living scientists and artists for ''"achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people ... irrespective of nati ...

and

Knuth Prize The Donald E. Knuth Prize is a prize for outstanding contributions to the foundations of computer science, named after the American computer scientist Donald E. Knuth. History The Knuth Prize has been awarded since 1996 and includes an award of U ...

in 1999, the

Gödel Prize The Gödel Prize is an annual prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science, given jointly by the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) and the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interes ...

in 2001, the

John von Neumann Theory Prize The John von Neumann Theory Prize of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is awarded annually to an individual (or sometimes a group) who has made fundamental and sustained contributions to theory in operat ...

in 2006, the in 2007, the

Széchenyi Prize The Széchenyi Prize ( hu, Széchenyi-díj), named after István Széchenyi, is a prize given in Hungary by the state, replacing the former State Prize in 1990 in recognition of those who have made an outstanding contribution to academic life in Hu ...

in 2008, and the

Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences The Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences is awarded once a year by the Inamori Foundation. The Prize is one of three Kyoto Prize categories; the others are the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology and the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy. The first Kyot ...

in 2010. In March 2021, he shared the Abel Prize with

from the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...

"for their foundational contributions to

theoretical computer science computer science (TCS) is a subset of general computer science and mathematics that focuses on mathematical aspects of computer science such as the theory of computation, lambda calculus, and type theory. It is difficult to circumscribe the ...

and discrete mathematics, and their leading role in shaping them into central fields of modern mathematics". In 2017 he received John von Neumann Professor title from the

Budapest University of Technology and Economics The Budapest University of Technology and Economics ( hu, Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem or in short ), official abbreviation BME, is the most significant university of technology in Hungary and is considered the world's olde ...

(BME) and the

John von Neumann Computer Society The John von Neumann Computer Society ( hu, Neumann János Számítógép-tudományi Társaság) is the central association for Hungarian researchers of Information communication technology and official partner of the International Federation fo ...

.Recipients are listed on Budapest University of Technology and Economics website: In 2021, he received Hungary's highest order, the

Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen The Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen ( Hungarian: ''Magyar Szent István Rend'') is the highest state honour bestowed by the President of Hungary. The order is made up of one grade which is "Grand Cross". History The order's origins can be t ...

. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006 and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2007, and an honorary member of the London Mathematical Society in 2009. Lovász was elected as a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2012. In 2012 he became a fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

. Lovász is listed as an

ISI highly cited researcher The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) was an academic publishing service, founded by Eugene Garfield in Philadelphia in 1956. ISI offered scientometric and bibliographic database services. Its specialty was citation indexing and analysis, ...

Personal life

Lovász is married to fellow mathematician

Katalin Vesztergombi Katalin L. Vesztergombi (born July 17, 1948) is a Hungarian mathematician known for her contributions to graph theory and discrete geometry. A student of Vera T. Sós and a co-author of Paul Erdős, she is an emeritus associate professor at Eö ...

, with whom he participated in a program for high school students gifted in mathematics, and has four children. He is a dual citizen of Hungary and the United States.

Books

* * *

Notes

External links

Website of László Lovász
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovasz, Laszlo 1948 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 20th-century Hungarian mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians 21st-century Hungarian mathematicians Abel Prize laureates American computer scientists Brouwer Medalists Combinatorialists European Research Council grantees Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gödel Prize laureates Graph theorists Hungarian computer scientists Hungarian emigrants to the United States Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars International Mathematical Olympiad participants John von Neumann Theory Prize winners Knuth Prize laureates Kyoto laureates in Basic Sciences Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Wolf Prize in Mathematics laureates Yale University faculty Network scientists Presidents of the International Mathematical Union