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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
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.


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
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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

* *
Biography
from 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