Esther Szekeres

Esther Szekeres (Hungarian: [ˈsɛkɛrɛʃ]; born Klein Eszter 20 February 1910 – 28 August 2005) was a Hungarian–Australian mathematician. Szekeres's Erdős number is 1.

Early life and education

Esther Klein was born to Ignaz Klein in a Jewish family in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary in 1910. As a young woman in Budpaest, Klein was a member of a group of Hungarians including Paul Erdős, George Szekeres, and Paul Turán that convened over interesting mathematical problems.^[1]

In 1933, Klein proposed a combinatorial problem, to be named by Erdős as the Happy Ending problem as it led to her marriage to George Szekeres in 1937, to the group.

Following the outbreak of World War II, Esther and George Szekeres emigrated to Australia after spending several years in Hongkew, a community of refugees located in Shanghai, China.^[2] In Australia, they originally settled in Adelaide, before moving to Sydney in the 1960s.

In Sydney, Esther lectured at Macquarie University, and was actively involved in mathematics enrichment for high-school students. In 1984, she jointly founded a weekly mathematics enrichment meeting that has since expanded into a program of about 30 groups that continue to meet weekly and inspire high school students throughout Australia and New Zealand.^[3]

Death

In 2004, she and George moved back to Adelaide, where, on 28 August 2005, she and her husband died within an hour of each other.^[4][1]

Personal life

Szekeres had two children.^[5]

References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Szekeres biography". MacTutor History of Mathematics, University of St Andrews. Retrieved 2012-08-11. 
2. ↑ The Hongkew community
3. ↑ "Szekeres Obituary". Australian Mathematics Trust. Retrieved 2012-08-11. 
4. ↑ "A world of teaching and numbers - times two - Obituaries". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2012-08-11. 
5. ↑ "Esther Klein Szekeres « Camilo’s Women & Math Blog". Camilo's Women & Math Blog.