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László Lovász (; born March 9, 1948) is a Hungarian mathematician and professor emeritus at Eötvös Loránd University, best known for his work in
combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...
, for which he was awarded the 2021 Abel Prize jointly with Avi Wigderson. He was the president of the International Mathematical Union from 2007 to 2010 and the president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 2014 to 2020. In
graph theory In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of ''graph (discrete mathematics), graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of ''Vertex (graph ...
, Lovász's notable contributions include the proofs of Kneser's conjecture and the Lovász local lemma, 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 city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
, 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. He also participated in a Hungarian game show about math prodigies. Paul Erdős helped introduce Lovász to
graph theory In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of ''graph (discrete mathematics), graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of ''Vertex (graph ...
at a young age. Lovász received his Candidate of Sciences (C.Sc.) degree in 1970 at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His advisor was Tibor Gallai. 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 at the University of Szeged, 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 Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
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 International Mathematical Union 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 Lovász local lemma, which has become a standard technique for proving the existence of rare graphs. Also in graph theory, Lovász proved Kneser's conjecture and helped formulate the Erdős–Faber–Lovász conjecture. With Arjen Lenstra and Hendrik Lenstra in 1982, Lovász developed the LLL algorithm for approximating points in lattices and reducing their bases. The LLL algorithm has been described by Gil Kalai as "one of the fundamental algorithms" and has been used in several practical applications, including polynomial factorization algorithms and
cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logy, -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of Adversary (cryptography), ...
. Donald Knuth named Lovász as one of his combinatorial heroes in a 2023 interview.


Awards

Lovász was awarded the Pólya Prize in 1979, the Fulkerson Prize in 1982 and 2012, the Brouwer Medal in 1993, the Wolf Prize and Knuth Prize in 1999, the Gödel Prize in 2001, the John von Neumann Theory Prize in 2006, the in 2007, the Széchenyi Prize in 2008, and the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences in 2010. In March 2021, he shared the Abel Prize with Avi Wigderson from the
Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...
"for their foundational contributions to
theoretical computer science Theoretical computer science is a subfield of computer science and mathematics that focuses on the Abstraction, abstract and mathematical foundations of computation. It is difficult to circumscribe the theoretical areas precisely. The Associati ...
and
discrete mathematics Discrete mathematics is the study of mathematical structures that can be considered "discrete" (in a way analogous to discrete variables, having a bijection with the set of natural numbers) rather than "continuous" (analogously to continuous f ...
, 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 (BME) and the John von Neumann Computer Society.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 and is awarded in recognition of the most special merits, outst ...
. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006 and the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...
in 2007, and an honorary member of the
London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's Learned society, learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh ...
in 2009. Lovász was elected as a member of the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
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, ...
.


Personal life

Lovász is married to fellow mathematician Katalin Vesztergombi, 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

* * * *


See also

* Topological combinatorics * Lovász conjecture * Geometry of numbers * Perfect graph theorem *
Greedoid In combinatorics, a greedoid is a type of set system. It arises from the notion of the matroid, which was originally introduced by Hassler Whitney, Whitney in 1935 to study planar graphs and was later used by Jack Edmonds, Edmonds to characterize ...
* Bell number * Lovász number * Graph limit * Lovász local lemma


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