László Lovász | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Lovász in 2017 | |
| Born | (1948-03-09)March 9, 1948 (age 77) |
| Citizenship | Hungarian, American[1] |
| Education | Eötvös Loránd University (CSc,PhD) Hungarian Academy of Sciences (PhD) |
| Known for | Erdős–Faber–Lovász conjecture Kneser's conjecture Lenstra–Lenstra–Lovász lattice basis reduction algorithm Lovász local lemma |
| Awards | Abel Prize (2021) Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences (2010) Széchenyi Prize (2008) János Bolyai Creative Prize [hu] (2007) John von Neumann Theory Prize (2006) Gödel Prize (2001) Knuth Prize (1999) Wolf Prize (1999) Fulkerson Prize (1982, 2012) Pólya Prize (SIAM) (1979) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics,Computer Science |
| Institutions | Eötvös Loránd University Microsoft Research Center Yale University University of Szeged |
| Thesis | Factors of Graphs (1971) |
| Doctoral advisor | Tibor Gallai |
| Doctoral students | András Frank Tamás Szőnyi Van Vu |
László Lovász (Hungarian:[ˈlovaːsˈlaːsloː]; born March 9, 1948) is a Hungarian mathematician and professor emeritus atEötvös Loránd University, best known for his work incombinatorics, for which he was awarded the 2021Abel Prize jointly withAvi Wigderson. He was the president of theInternational Mathematical Union from 2007 to 2010 and the president of theHungarian Academy of Sciences from 2014 to 2020.
Ingraph theory, Lovász's notable contributions include the proofs ofKneser's conjecture and theLovász local lemma, as well as the formulation of theErdős–Faber–Lovász conjecture. He is also one of the eponymous authors of theLLL lattice reduction algorithm.
Lovász was born on March 9, 1948, inBudapest, Hungary.[2][3][1]
Lovász attended theFazekas Mihály Gimnázium in Budapest.[4] He won three gold medals (1964–1966) and one silver medal (1963) at theInternational Mathematical Olympiad.[2][3][5][4] He also participated in a Hungarian game show about math prodigies.[3]Paul Erdős helped introduce Lovász tograph theory at a young age.[3][6]
Lovász received hisCandidate of Sciences (C.Sc.) degree in 1970 at theHungarian Academy of Sciences.[3][7][1] His advisor wasTibor Gallai.[7][8] He received his first doctorate (Dr.Rer.Nat.) degree fromEötvös Loránd University in 1971 and his second doctorate (Dr.Math.Sci.) from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1977.[1]
From 1971 to 1975, Lovász worked at Eötvös Loránd University as a research associate.[1] From 1975 to 1978, he was adocent at theUniversity of Szeged, and then served as a professor and the Chair of Geometry there until 1982.[1] He then returned to Eötvös Loránd University as a professor and the Chair of Computer Science until 1993.[1]
Lovász was a professor atYale University from 1993 to 1999, when he moved to theMicrosoft Research Center where he worked as a senior researcher until 2006.[1] He returned toEötvös Loránd University where he was the director of the Mathematical Institute (2006–2011)[9] and a professor in the Department of Computer Science (2006–2018).[1] He retired in 2018.[1]
Lovász was the president of theInternational Mathematical Union between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2010.[10][6] In 2014, he was elected the president of theHungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) and served until 2020.[11][12][6]
In collaboration with Erdős in the 1970s, Lovász developed complementary methods to Erdős's existingprobabilistic graph theory techniques.[3] This included theLovász local lemma, which has become a standard technique forproving the existence of raregraphs.[3] Also in graph theory, Lovász provedKneser's conjecture and helped formulate theErdős–Faber–Lovász conjecture.[3]
WithArjen Lenstra andHendrik Lenstra in 1982, Lovász developed theLLL algorithm for approximating points inlattices andreducing their bases.[3][13] The LLL algorithm has been described byGil Kalai as "one of the fundamental algorithms" and has been used in several practical applications, includingpolynomial factorization algorithms andcryptography.[3]
Donald Knuth named Lovász as one of his combinatorial heroes in a 2023 interview.[14]
Lovász was awarded thePólya Prize in 1979, theFulkerson Prize in 1982 and 2012, theBrouwer Medal in 1993, theWolf Prize andKnuth Prize in 1999, theGödel Prize in 2001, theJohn von Neumann Theory Prize in 2006, theJános Bolyai Creative Prize [hu] in 2007, theSzéchenyi Prize in 2008, and theKyoto Prize in Basic Sciences in 2010.[1][15][16] In March 2021, he shared theAbel Prize withAvi Wigderson from theInstitute for Advanced Study "for their foundational contributions totheoretical computer science anddiscrete mathematics, and their leading role in shaping them into central fields of modern mathematics".[2][3][6] In 2017 he receivedJohn von Neumann Professor title from theBudapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) and theJohn von Neumann Computer Society.[17] In 2021, he received Hungary's highest order, theHungarian Order of Saint Stephen.[18]
He was elected a foreign member of theRoyal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006[19] and theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2007, and an honorary member of theLondon Mathematical Society in 2009.[20] Lovász was elected as a member of the U.S.National Academy of Sciences in 2012.[21] In 2012 he became a fellow of theAmerican Mathematical Society.[22]
Lovász is married to fellow mathematicianKatalin Vesztergombi,[23] with whom he participated in a program for high school students gifted in mathematics,[24] and has four children.[25][1] He is a dual citizen of Hungary and the United States.[1]
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| Preceded by | President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences 2014–2020 | Succeeded by |
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