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Birkhäuser

Mathematician for All Seasons

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Hugo Steinhaus

    1. Wroclaw, Poland

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Editors:
  1. Robert G. Burns

    1. Toronto, Canada

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  2. Irena Szymaniec

    1. Wrocław, Poland

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  3. Aleksander Weron

    1. The Hugo Steinhaus Center, Wrocław University of Technology (W The Hugo Steinhaus Center, Wrocław, Poland

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Covers the inside story of Polish mathematics from the first-half of the 20th century
  • An excellent English translation mirrors the subtleties found in Steinhaus' original texts in Polish
  • Features extensive footnotes providing the context for many of the textual references

Part of the book series: Vita Mathematica (VM, volume 18/19)

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Keywords

  • Mathematics World War II
  • Polish mathematicians
  • Polish War History
  • Mathematics Europe 20th Century
  • Poland mathematics

About this book

This book presents, in his own words, the life of Hugo Steinhaus (1887–1972), noted Polish mathematician of Jewish background, educator, and mathematical popularizer. A student of Hilbert, a pioneer of the foundations of probability and game theory, and a contributor to the development of functional analysis, he was one of those instrumental to the extraordinary flowering of Polish mathematics before and after World War I. In particular, it was he who “discovered” the great Stefan Banach. Exhibiting his great integrity and wit, Steinhaus’s personal story of the turbulent times he survived – including two world wars and life postwar under the Soviet heel – cannot but be of consuming interest. His account of the years spent evading Nazi terror is especially moving. The steadfast honesty and natural dignity he maintained while pursuing a life of demanding scientific and intellectual enquiry in the face of encroaching calamity and chaos show him to be truly a mathematician for all seasons.

The present work will be of great interest not only to mathematicians wanting to learn some of the details of the mathematical blossoming that occurred in Poland in the first half of the 20thcentury, but also to anyone wishing to read a first-hand account of the history of those unquiet times in Europe – and indeed world-wide – by someone of uncommon intelligence and forthrightness situated near an eye of the storm.

Authors, Editors and Affiliations

  • Toronto, Canada

    Robert G. Burns

  • Wrocław, Poland

    Irena Szymaniec

  • The Hugo Steinhaus Center, Wrocław University of Technology (W The Hugo Steinhaus Center, Wrocław, Poland

    Aleksander Weron

  • Wroclaw, Poland

    Hugo Steinhaus

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Mathematician for All Seasons

  • Authors: Hugo Steinhaus

  • Editors: Robert G. Burns, Irena Szymaniec, Aleksander Weron

  • Series Title: Vita Mathematica

  • Publisher: Birkhäuser Cham

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

  • Series ISSN: 1013-0330

  • Series E-ISSN: 2504-3706

  • Edition Number: 1

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