Ernst G. Straus
Encyclopedia
Ernst Gabor Straus was a German
-American
mathematician
who helped found the theories of Euclidean Ramsey theory
and of the arithmetic properties of analytic function
s. His extensive list of co-authors includes Albert Einstein
and Paul Erdős
as well as other notable researchers including Richard Bellman
, Béla Bollobás
, Sarvadaman Chowla, Ronald Graham
, László Lovász
, Carl Pomerance
, and George Szekeres
. It is due to his collaboration with Straus that Einstein has Erdős number
2.
Straus was born in Munich, Germany, February 25, 1922, the youngest of five children of a prominent attorney, Eli Straus, and his wife Rahel Straus née Goitein, a medical doctor and feminist. Ernst Gabor Straus came to be known as a mathematical prodigy from a very young age. Following the death of his father, the family fled the Nazi regime for Palestine
in 1933, and Straus was educated at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Although he never received an undergraduate degree, Straus began graduate studies at Columbia University
in New York, earning a PhD in 1948 under F. J. Murray. Two years later, he became the assistant of Albert Einstein
. After a three-year stint at the Institute for Advanced Study
, Straus took a position at the University of California, Los Angeles
, which he kept for the rest of his life. Straus died July 12, 1983 of heart failure.
Straus's interests ranged widely over his career, beginning with his early work on relativity with Einstein and continuing with deep work in analytic number theory
, extremal graph theory
, and combinatorics
. One of his best known contributions in popular mathematics is the Erdős–Straus conjecture
that every number of the form 4/n has a three-term Egyptian fraction.
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
who helped found the theories of Euclidean Ramsey theory
Ramsey theory
Ramsey theory, named after the British mathematician and philosopher Frank P. Ramsey, is a branch of mathematics that studies the conditions under which order must appear...
and of the arithmetic properties of analytic function
Analytic function
In mathematics, an analytic function is a function that is locally given by a convergent power series. There exist both real analytic functions and complex analytic functions, categories that are similar in some ways, but different in others...
s. His extensive list of co-authors includes Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
and Paul Erdős
Paul Erdos
Paul Erdős was a Hungarian mathematician. Erdős published more papers than any other mathematician in history, working with hundreds of collaborators. He worked on problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory...
as well as other notable researchers including Richard Bellman
Richard Bellman
Richard Ernest Bellman was an American applied mathematician, celebrated for his invention of dynamic programming in 1953, and important contributions in other fields of mathematics.-Biography:...
, Béla Bollobás
Béla Bollobás
Béla Bollobás FRS is a Hungarian-born British mathematician who has worked in various areas of mathematics, including functional analysis, combinatorics, graph theory and percolation. As a student, he took part in the first three International Mathematical Olympiads, winning two gold medals...
, Sarvadaman Chowla, Ronald Graham
Ronald Graham
Ronald Lewis Graham is a mathematician credited by the American Mathematical Society as being "one of the principal architects of the rapid development worldwide of discrete mathematics in recent years"...
, László Lovász
László Lovász
László Lovász 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....
, Carl Pomerance
Carl Pomerance
Carl Bernard Pomerance is a well-known number theorist. He attended college at Brown University and later received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1972 with a dissertation proving that any odd perfect number has at least 7 distinct prime factors. He immediately joined the faculty at the...
, and George Szekeres
George Szekeres
George Szekeres AM was a Hungarian-Australian mathematician.-Early years:Szekeres was born in Budapest, Hungary as Szekeres György and received his degree in chemistry at the Technical University of Budapest. He worked six years in Budapest as an analytical chemist. He married Esther Klein in 1936...
. It is due to his collaboration with Straus that Einstein has Erdős number
Erdos number
The Erdős number describes the "collaborative distance" between a person and mathematician Paul Erdős, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers.The same principle has been proposed for other eminent persons in other fields.- Overview :...
2.
Straus was born in Munich, Germany, February 25, 1922, the youngest of five children of a prominent attorney, Eli Straus, and his wife Rahel Straus née Goitein, a medical doctor and feminist. Ernst Gabor Straus came to be known as a mathematical prodigy from a very young age. Following the death of his father, the family fled the Nazi regime for Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
in 1933, and Straus was educated at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Although he never received an undergraduate degree, Straus began graduate studies at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York, earning a PhD in 1948 under F. J. Murray. Two years later, he became the assistant of Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
. After a three-year stint at the Institute for Advanced Study
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...
, Straus took a position at the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
, which he kept for the rest of his life. Straus died July 12, 1983 of heart failure.
Straus's interests ranged widely over his career, beginning with his early work on relativity with Einstein and continuing with deep work in analytic number theory
Analytic number theory
In mathematics, analytic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses methods from mathematical analysis to solve problems about the integers. It is often said to have begun with Dirichlet's introduction of Dirichlet L-functions to give the first proof of Dirichlet's theorem on arithmetic...
, extremal graph theory
Extremal graph theory
Extremal graph theory is a branch of the mathematical field of graph theory. Extremal graph theory studies extremal graphs which satisfy a certain property. Extremality can be taken with respect to different graph invariants, such as order, size or girth...
, and combinatorics
Combinatorics
Combinatorics is a branch of mathematics concerning the study of finite or countable discrete structures. Aspects of combinatorics include counting the structures of a given kind and size , deciding when certain criteria can be met, and constructing and analyzing objects meeting the criteria ,...
. One of his best known contributions in popular mathematics is the Erdős–Straus conjecture
Erdos–Straus conjecture
In number theory, the Erdős–Straus conjecture states that for all integers n ≥ 2, the rational number 4/n can be expressed as the sum of three unit fractions. Paul Erdős and Ernst G...
that every number of the form 4/n has a three-term Egyptian fraction.