Alfréd Rényi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alfréd Rényi (March 20, 1921 – February 1, 1970) was a Hungarian mathematician who made contributions in combinatorics and graph theory but mostly in probability theory.
He proved, using the large sieve, that there is a number K such that every even number is the sum of a prime number and a number that can be written as the product of at most K primes. See also Goldbach conjecture.
In information theory, he introduced the spectrum of Rényi entropies of order α, giving an important generalisation of the Shannon entropy and the Kullback-Leibler divergence. The Rényi entropies give a spectrum of useful diversity indices, and lead to a spectrum of fractal dimensions.
He founded the Mathematical Institute in Budapest, called The Alfred Renyi Institute of Mathematics. There are currently approximately 70 mathematicians doing research at the Institute.http://owpdb.mfo.de/DATA/000000-000999/000067x.jpg
He wrote 32 joint papers with Paul Erdős [1]. Alfréd Rényi is probably the source of the quote: "A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems.", which is generally ascribed to Erdős.
He is also famous for having said, "If I feel unhappy, I do mathematics to become happy. If I am happy, I do mathematics to keep happy." Quoted in P Turán, "The Work of Alfréd Rényi", Matematikai Lapok 21 (1970) 199 - 210.
[edit] External link
- O'Connor, John J., and Edmund F. Robertson. "Alfréd Rényi". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
- Alfréd Rényi at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
 |
This article about a mathematician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 |
This Hungarian biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
