László Lovász

László Lovász (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈlaːsloː ˈlovaːs]; born March 9, 1948) is a Hungarian mathematician, best known for his work in combinatorics, for which he was awarded the Wolf Prize and the Knuth Prize in 1999, and the Kyoto Prize in 2010. He is the current president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Biography

Lovász was born on March 9, 1948 in the city of Budapest. His father was a surgeon. When Lovász was 14 he found a mathematical article written by Paul Erdős that fascinated him. One year later, he personally acquainted Erdős. They became friends and talked about mathematics and other subjects. This experience greatly inspired Lovász in searching for more knowledge.

In high school, Lovász won gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad (in 1964, 1965, 1966 with two special prizes).

Lovász received his Candidate of Sciences (C.Sc.) degree in 1970 at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His advisor was Tibor Gallai.

Until 1975, Lovász worked at Eötvös Loránd University, between 1975–1982, he led the Department of Geometry at the University of Szeged. In 1982, he returned to the Eötvös University, where he created the Department of Computer Science. The former and current scientists of the department include György Elekes, András Frank, József Beck, Éva Tardos, András Hajnal, Lajos Pósa, Miklós Simonovits, Tamás Szőnyi.