Michael Fekete

Michael Fekete
Fekete in 1940
Born
Mihály Fekete

(1886-07-19)19 July 1886
Zenta, Austria-Hungary, (today Senta, Serbia)
Died13 May 1957(1957-05-13) (aged 70)
Jerusalem, Israel
NationalityIsraeli
Alma materUniversity of Budapest
Known forFekete's lemma, Fekete polynomial
AwardsIsrael Prize for Exact Sciences (1955)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsBudapest University
Hebrew University
Doctoral advisorLipót Fejér
Doctoral studentsAryeh Dvoretzky
Michael Bahir Maschler
Zeev Nehari
Menahem Max Schiffer

Michael (Mihály) Fekete (Hebrew: מיכאל פקטה; 19 July 1886 – 13 May 1957) was a Hungarian-Israeli mathematician.[1]

Biography

Mathematics professor Michael Fekete, the Provost of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with his water quota, during the siege of Jerusalem

Michael Fekete was born in Zenta, Austria-Hungary (today Senta, Serbia). He received his PhD in 1909 from the University of Budapest (later renamed Eötvös Loránd University). He studied under Lipót Fejér. After completing his PhD he switched to University of Göttingen, which was considered a mathematics hub. In 1914, he returned to the University of Budapest, where he attained the title of Privatdozent.[2]

Fekete also worked as a private math tutor. Among his students was János Neumann. In 1922, Fekete published a paper together with Neumann on extremal polynomials, which was Neumann's first scientific paper.[3] Fekete dedicated the majority of his scientific work to the transfinite diameter.

In 1928 Fekete immigrated to Mandate Palestine and was among the first instructors of the Institute of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[4] In 1929 he was promoted to professor, and eventually headed the institute, succeeding Edmund Landau and Adolf Abraham Halevi Fraenkel. He later became the dean of Natural Sciences, and between the years 1946–1948 he was Hebrew University Provost.

Among his students were Aryeh Dvoretzky and Michael Bahir Maschler.

Awards and recognition

In 1955, Fekete was awarded the Israel Prize for exact sciences.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ Rogosinski, W. W. (1958). "Obituary: Michael Fekete". Journal of the London Mathematical Society. Second Series. 33: 496–500. doi:10.1112/jlms/s1-33.4.496. ISSN 0024-6107. MR 0100535.
  2. ^ "Prof. Michael Fekete; 1886-1957". Israel Digest: A Bi-weekly Summary of News from Israel, Volumes 6-8. 1955. p. 8.
  3. ^ Hersh 2015, p. 168.
  4. ^ Joseph, Melnikov & Rentschler 2003.
  5. ^ "Israel Prize recipients in 1955 (in Hebrew)". cms.education.gov.il (Israel Prize official website). Archived from the original on June 12, 2012.

Literature