Dénes Kőnig (September 21, 1884 – October 19, 1944) was a Hungarian mathematician of Hungarian Jewish heritage who worked in and wrote the first textbook on the field of
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 ...
.
Biography
Kőnig 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 ...
, the son of mathematician
Gyula Kőnig
Gyula Kőnig (16 December 1849 – 8 April 1913) was a mathematician from Hungary. His mathematical publications in German appeared under the name Julius König. His son Dénes Kőnig was a graph theorist.
Biography
Gyula Kőnig was active lite ...
. In 1907, he received his doctorate
[ Translated by Richard McCoart; with commentary by W.T. Tutte.] at, and joined the faculty of the Royal Joseph University in Budapest (today
Budapest University of Technology and Economics
The Budapest University of Technology and Economics ( or in short ), official abbreviation BME, is a public research university located in Budapest, Hungary. It is the most significant university of technology in the country and is considered ...
). His classes were visited by
Paul Erdős
Paul Erdős ( ; 26March 191320September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. He was one of the most prolific mathematicians and producers of mathematical conjectures of the 20th century. pursued and proposed problems in discrete mathematics, g ...
, who, as a first year student, solved one of his problems. Kőnig became a full professor there in 1935.
To honor his fathers' death in 1913, Kőnig and his brother György created the
Gyula Kőnig
Gyula Kőnig (16 December 1849 – 8 April 1913) was a mathematician from Hungary. His mathematical publications in German appeared under the name Julius König. His son Dénes Kőnig was a graph theorist.
Biography
Gyula Kőnig was active lite ...
prize in 1918.
This prize was meant to be an endowment for young mathematicians, however was later devaluated. But the prize remained as a medal of high scientific recognition. In 1899, he published his first work while still attending High School
in a journal ''Matematikai és Fizikai Lapok''. After his graduation in 1902, he won first place in a mathematical competition "Eötvös Loránd".
Shortly after he wrote the first of two book collections ''Matematikai Mulatságok'' (Mathematical Entertainments). He spent four semesters at the university in Budapest and his last five in Göttingen, during which he studied under the famous mathematicians
József Kürschák
József Kürschák (14 March 1864 – 26 March 1933) was a Hungarian mathematician noted for his work on trigonometry and for his creation of the theory of valuations. He proved that every valued field can be embedded into a complete valued fiel ...
and
Hermann Minkowski
Hermann Minkowski (22 June 1864 – 12 January 1909) was a mathematician and professor at the University of Königsberg, the University of Zürich, and the University of Göttingen, described variously as German, Polish, Lithuanian-German, o ...
. He then received his doctorate
in 1907 due to his dissertation in geometry, that same year he began working for the Technische Hochschule in Budapest and remained a part of the faculty till his death in 1944. At first he started as an assistant in problem sessions, in 1910 he was promoted to "oberassistant",
and then promoted to "Privatdocent"
in 1911 teaching
nomography, analysis situs (later to be known as
topology
Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...
), set theory, real numbers and functions, and graph theory (the name "
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 ...
" didn't appear in the university catalogue until 1927). During this time he would be a guest speaker giving mathematics lecture for architecture and chemistry students, in 1920 these lectures made their way into book form.
at the Technische Hochschule.
From 1915 to 1942 he was on a committee to judge school contests in mathematics, collecting problems for these contests, and organizing them.
Then in 1933 he was elected as secretary of the society
and in 1942 he became the chairman of this committee.
He then decided to make edits in the society's journal during his time on the committee till his death.
Kőnig's activities and lectures played a vital role in the growth of graph theoretical work of: László Egyed,
Paul Erdős
Paul Erdős ( ; 26March 191320September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. He was one of the most prolific mathematicians and producers of mathematical conjectures of the 20th century. pursued and proposed problems in discrete mathematics, g ...
,
Tibor Gallai,
György Hajós, József Kraus,
Tibor Szele
Tibor Szele (21 June 1918 – 5 April 1955) Hungarian mathematician, working in combinatorics and abstract algebra
In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures, which ...
,
Pál Turán
Pál Turán (; 18 August 1910 – 26 September 1976) also known as Paul Turán, was a Hungarian mathematician who worked primarily in extremal combinatorics.
In 1940, because of his Jewish origins, he was arrested by History of the Jews in Hun ...
, Endre Vázsonyi, and many others.
He went on to write the first book on graph theory ''Theorie der endlichen und unendlichen Graphen'' in 1936.
This marked the beginning of graph theory as its own branch of mathematics. Then in 1958,
Claude Berge wrote the second book on graph theory, ''Théorie des Graphes et ses applications'',
following Kőnig.
After the
occupation of Hungary by
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
, he worked to help persecuted mathematicians. On October 15, 1944, the National Socialist
Arrow Cross Party
The Arrow Cross Party (, , abbreviated NYKP) was a far-right Hungarian ultranationalist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which formed a government in Hungary they named the Government of National Unity. They were in power from 15 October 1944 to ...
took over the country. Days later on October 19, 1944, he committed suicide to evade persecution from the Nazis for being a Hungarian Jew.
Accomplishments
:1899 – ''Matematikai és Fizikai Lapok'' written while attending High School
:1902 – First place in "Eötvös Loránd"
:1907 – received his Doctorate Degree
:1910 – promoted to "oberassistant"
:1911 – promoted to "Privatdocent" in 1911 teaching nomography, analysis situs (later to be known as topology), set theory, real numbers and functions, and graph theory
:1935 – gained full professorship at Technische Hochschule
:1936 – he wrote the first book on graph theory, ''Theorie der endlichen und unendlichen Graphen''
Dénes König Prize
The Dénes König Prize is a prize established and given by the
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific soci ...
Activity Group on Discrete Mathematics to an early career researcher for outstanding research in an area of discrete mathematics. The first award was given in 2008, and it had been given biennially thereafter.
Past award recipients
Bibliography
*
*. Translated from
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
by Richard McCoart, ''Theory of finite and infinite graphs'', Birkhäuser, 1990, .
See also
*
Kőnig's theorem (graph theory)
*
Kőnig's theorem (set theory) is due to Dénes' father,
Gyula Kőnig
Gyula Kőnig (16 December 1849 – 8 April 1913) was a mathematician from Hungary. His mathematical publications in German appeared under the name Julius König. His son Dénes Kőnig was a graph theorist.
Biography
Gyula Kőnig was active lite ...
.
*
Kőnig's lemma
Kőnig's lemma or Kőnig's infinity lemma is a theorem in graph theory due to the Hungarian mathematician Dénes Kőnig who published it in 1927. It gives a sufficient condition for an infinite graph to have an infinitely long path. The computab ...
*
Labyrinth problem
References
External links
*
*
a Hungarian biography siteDénes König Prize
{{DEFAULTSORT:Konig, Denes
1884 births
1944 suicides
1944 deaths
Burials at Kerepesi Cemetery
Jewish Hungarian scientists
20th-century Hungarian mathematicians
Graph theorists
Suicides by jumping in Hungary
Mathematicians from Austria-Hungary
Mathematics awards
Suicides by Jews during the Holocaust
Hungarian Jews who died in the Holocaust