Béla Bollobás

Infobox Scientist
box_width =
name = Béla Bollobás


image_size =
caption =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1943|8|3
birth_place = Budapest, Hungary
death_date =
death_place =
residence =
citizenship =
nationality =
ethnicity =
fields = Mathematics
workplaces = University of Memphis
alma_mater = University of Cambridge
doctoral_advisor =
academic_advisors =
doctoral_students =
notable_students = Tim Gowers
Imre Leader
Charles Read
Jonathan Partington
known_for = Functional analysis, combinatorics, graph theory
author_abbrev_bot =
author_abbrev_zoo =
influences =
influenced =
awards = Senior Whitehead Prize (2007)
religion =


footnotes =

Béla Bollobás (born August 3, 1943 in Budapest, Hungary) is a Hungarian mathematician who has worked in various areas of mathematics, including functional analysis, combinatorics and graph theory. His first doctorate was for work in discrete geometry in 1967, after which he spent a year in Moscow with Gelfand. After spending a year in Oxford he went to Cambridge, where in 1972 he received a Ph.D. in functional analysis. [MathGenealogy|id=22719]

He is an external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He has been a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge since 1970, and is currently the Jabie Hardin Chair Professor at the University of Memphis.

He is known as an important expositor of combinatorial mathematics, on which he has written a number of books, and for spreading the combinatorial approach. His students include Tim Gowers, Fields Medal winner, and current Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge; Imre Leader, also professor of mathematics at Cambridge; Charles Read and Jonathan Partington, both Professors of Mathematics at the University of Leeds. He co-wrote 18 papers with Paul Erdős, giving him an Erdős number of 1. [ [http://www.oakland.edu/enp/Erdos0 Erdos0, Version 2007, February 28, 2007] ]

He proved several results on random graphs, e.g., that the chromatic number of the random graph on "n" vertices is asymptotically $n/2log\; n$. Also, he established a large number of theorems on extremal problems of set systems, as an example, he proved first what became later known as the LYM inequality.

In 2007 Bollobás was awarded the Senior Whitehead Prize by the London Mathematical Society [cite web
url = http://www.lms.ac.uk/activities/prizes_com/pastwinners.html#swhitehead
title = List of Prizewinners
author = London Mathematical Society
accessdate = 2007-07-08] .

He is also a sportsman, having represented Oxford University at modern pentathlon, and Cambridge University at fencing. His wife, Gabriella Bollobás is an accomplished sculptor and painter.

References

External links

* [http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/belabash/ Béla Bollobás 60th birthday conference, August 2003]
*MathGenealogy|id=22719
* [http://bollobas.com/ Homepage]

Persondata
NAME= Bollobás, Béla
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Hungarian mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH= August 3, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH= Budapest, Hungary
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=