Tibor Radó ( ; June 2, 1895 – December 29, 1965) was a Hungarian
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 ...
who moved to the United States after
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
.
Biography
Radó was born 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 ...
and between 1913 and 1915 attended the
Polytechnic Institute, studying
civil engineering
Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...
. In
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, he became a First Lieutenant in the Hungarian Army and was captured on the Russian Front. He escaped from a Siberian prisoner camp and, traveling thousands of miles across
Arctic
The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...
wasteland, managed to return to Hungary.
He received a doctorate from the
Franz Joseph University in 1923. He taught briefly at the university and then became a research fellow in Germany for the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...
. In 1929, he moved to the United States and lectured at
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 ...
and the
Rice Institute before obtaining a faculty position in the Department of Mathematics at
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
in 1930. In 1935 he was granted American citizenship. In
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 ...
he was a science consultant to the United States government, interrupting his academic career. He became Chairman of the Department of Mathematics at Ohio State University in 1948.
In the 1920s, he proved that
surfaces have an
essentially unique triangulation. In 1933, Radó published "On the Problem of Plateau" in which he gave a solution to
Plateau's problem, and in 1935, "Subharmonic Functions". His work focused on computer science in the last decade of his life and in May 1962 he published one of his most famous results in the ''
Bell System Technical Journal'': the
busy beaver function and its
non-computability ("On Non-Computable Functions").
He died in
New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
Works
''Über den Begriff der Riemannschen Fläche'' Acta Scientarum Mathematicarum Universitatis Szegediensis, 1925
''The problem of least area and the problem of Plateau'', Mathematische Zeitschrift Vol. 32, 1930, p.763* ''On the problem of Plateau'', Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete, 1933, 1951, 1971
* ''Subharmonic Functions'', Springer, Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete, 1937
* ''Length and Area'', AMS Colloquium Lectures, 1948
*with Paul V. Reichelderfer ''Continuous transformations in analysis - with an introduction to algebraic topology'', Springer 1955
''On Non-Computable Functions'' Bell System Technical Journal 41/196
scan* ''Computer studies of Turing machine problems'', Journal of the ACM 12/1965
See also
*
Radó's theorem (Riemann surfaces)
*
Radó's theorem (harmonic functions)
References
External links
*
*
Biographyfrom the
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
and other links
Obituary New York Times. December 31, 1965. Page 21.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rado, Tibor
1895 births
1965 deaths
20th-century Hungarian mathematicians
Hungarian emigrants to the United States
20th-century American mathematicians
Franz Joseph University alumni
Harvard University staff
Rice University faculty
Ohio State University faculty
Mathematicians from Austria-Hungary