Pál Medgyessy (October 19, 1919, in

Egercsehi Egercsehi is a village in Heves County, Hungary. As of 2015, it has a population of 1,320, and 1,281 as of the 2021 estimate. History The earliest written record of the village dates back to 1285. The jewish community Jews lived in the village in ...

– October 8, 1977, 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 ...

) was a mathematician, Doctor of Mathematical Sciences (1973).

Biography

He graduated at the

University of Budapest A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

as a student of Eötvös József Collegium. He started his career as a trainee at the Institute of Medical Physics at the

University of Debrecen ThUniversity of Debrecen( hu, Debreceni Egyetem) is a university located in Debrecen, Hungary. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest continuously operating institution of higher education in Hungary ever since its ...

. Due to his illness, his scientific work was slow to develop. He read the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

-language classics in the original, spoke

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, and

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well, and during his captivity he also mastered

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, so his skills were utilised as an interpreter during the war. He published some of his books in English.Medgyessy Pál, a sokoldalú tudós matematikus
("Pál Medgyessy, the multi-faceted scholar mathematician", an article by Zoltán Rostás) He was an aspirant to the candidate's degree at the Mathematical Research Institute of the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its ma ...

, a student of

Alfréd Rényi Alfréd Rényi (20 March 1921 – 1 February 1970) was a Hungarian mathematician known for his work in probability theory, though he also made contributions in combinatorics, graph theory, and number theory. Life Rényi was born in Budapest to ...

’s. From 1955 on he was a research associate and scientific advisor at the Institute. He received his doctorate in mathematics from the HAS in 1973.

Research interests

His main research interests were

probability Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an Event (probability theory), event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and ...

mathematical statistics Mathematical statistics is the application of probability theory, a branch of mathematics, to statistics, as opposed to techniques for collecting statistical data. Specific mathematical techniques which are used for this include mathematical an ...

, and their applications; his results on numerical methods are also remarkable. Many of his papers are in the fields of

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

, and

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter wa ...

. His results on various non-electronic calculators and equipment are noteworthy. He was an outstanding expert in

bibliography Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

, credited with the modernization of the mathematics section of the

decimal classification Decimal classification is a type of library classification. Examples include: * Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) * Korean Decimal Classification (KDC) * Nippon Decimal Classification (NDC) See also * Classification * Decimal * Decimal section n ...

and the preparation of several bibliographies, including those of the works of

Frigyes Riesz Frigyes Riesz ( hu, Riesz Frigyes, , sometimes spelled as Frederic; 22 January 1880 – 28 February 1956) was a HungarianEberhard Zeidler: Nonlinear Functional Analysis and Its Applications: Linear monotone operators. Springer, 199/ref> mathema ...

and

. His works on the history of science deal with ancient

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...

n and

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

science and the history of

Chinese mathematics Mathematics in China emerged independently by the 11th century BCE. The Chinese independently developed a real number system that includes significantly large and negative numbers, more than one numeral system ( base 2 and base 10), algebra, geomet ...

and

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...

Major works

In English

* ''Decompositions of Superposition of Distribution Functions'' (Bp., 1961), its 1995 edition: * ''Decomposition of Superpositions of Density Functions and Discrete Distributions'' (

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, 1977). .

In Hungarian

* ''Valószínűségeloszlás-függvények keverékének felbontása összetevőire'' ("Decomposition of mixtures of probability distribution functions into its components", Budapest, 1954) * ''Valószínűségszámítás'' ("Probability theory", textbook, authored with Lajos Takács, Budapest, 1957, 1966) * ''Sűrűségfüggvények és diszkrét eloszlások szuperpozíciójának felbontása'' ("Decomposition of density functions and superposition of discrete distributions", Budapest, 1971) * ''Rényi Alfréd munkássága'' ("The Works of Alfréd Rényi", compiled, Budapest, 1971)

References

External links

In English

''A panorama of Hungarian mathematics in the twentieth century''
(his entry displayed by Google Books)

In Hungarian

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304094949/http://www.szabarchiv.hu/drupal/userfiles/file/Medgyessy%20P%C3%A1l%20a%20sokoldal%C3%BA%20tud%C3%B3s%20matematikus.pdf Medgyessy Pál, a sokoldalú tudós matematikus] ("Pál Medgyessy, the multi-faceted scholar mathematician", an article by Zoltán Rostás) *
More articles about him in the Calendar of Scientists
* ''A sokoldalú tudós. Medgyessy Pál emlékezete'' ("The multi-faceted scholar. Remembering Pál Medgyessy",

Magyar Nemzet ''Magyar Nemzet'' ('' en, Hungarian Nation'') is a major Hungarian newspaper published in Hungary, and in 2021 styled itself as "close to the current Hungarian government led by Viktor Orbán." History and profile ''Magyar Nemzet'', a moderate ...

, November 2, 1977) * Gazda, István, Jr.: "Az elmúlt év októberében hunyt el Medgyessy Pál…" ("Pál Medgyessy passed away in October last year..."), in ''Természet Világa'' ("The World of Nature"), , 1978 (vol. 109), issue 11, p. 521 {{DEFAULTSORT:Medgyessy 1919 births 1977 deaths Probability theorists 20th-century Hungarian mathematicians