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Arthur Erdelyi
Times obituary
Mathematics at Edinburgh
Professor Arthur Erdélyi, FRS, who died on December 12 at the age of 69, was Professor of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh.
He was born on October 2, 1908, in Budapest. He attended school there from 1914 to 1926 and then went to Brno, Czechoslovakia, to a technological institute for his tertiary education, where his initial studies were directed towards electrical engineering. His particular flair for mathematics was shared by his parents, and under normal circumstances, a career in professional mathematics in Czechoslovakia would have been assured.
The German occupation of Czechoslovakia forced him to leave the country early in 1939. Largely due to the good offices of Edmund Whittaker, he was given support to enable him to come to Edinburgh in February 1939, and in 1941 he became a lecturer on the staff of the Mathematics Department. His long association with the California Institute of Technology began in 1947. He spent a year there, returning to Edinburgh in 1948, and in 1949 went back to Pasadena as Professor of Mathematics at the California Institute, one of the great scientific centres of learning, a post which he was to hold for the next 15 years.
In 1964 he returned to Frankfurt University as Professor of Mathematics, in which capacity he served until his death. He became a naturalized British citizen in 1947 and retained this citizenship despite his long period in the United States.
To Erdélyi over the years were accorded the academic honours that were his due. In 1940 he was awarded the degree of DSc (Edin). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1945, a Foreign Member of the Academy of Sciences of Torino in 1953, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1975. In 1977 he was awarded the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is a former president of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society and served on the Council of the American Mathematical Society. He held joint or associate editorship of several periodicals. He held visiting professorships at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, in 1956–57 and at the University of Melbourne in 1970.
Erdélyi was a mathematician of immense talent and had a wonderful ability to range across the fields of both pure and applied mathematics. He was primarily an analyst. His books and research papers, together with the achievements of his many research students, are a permanent record of the outstanding contribution he made to the subject of mathematics to which he devoted his life.
He is survived by his widow
Mathematics at Edinburgh
Professor Arthur Erdélyi, FRS, who died on December 12 at the age of 69, was Professor of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh.
He was born on October 2, 1908, in Budapest. He attended school there from 1914 to 1926 and then went to Brno, Czechoslovakia, to a technological institute for his tertiary education, where his initial studies were directed towards electrical engineering. His particular flair for mathematics was shared by his parents, and under normal circumstances, a career in professional mathematics in Czechoslovakia would have been assured.
The German occupation of Czechoslovakia forced him to leave the country early in 1939. Largely due to the good offices of Edmund Whittaker, he was given support to enable him to come to Edinburgh in February 1939, and in 1941 he became a lecturer on the staff of the Mathematics Department. His long association with the California Institute of Technology began in 1947. He spent a year there, returning to Edinburgh in 1948, and in 1949 went back to Pasadena as Professor of Mathematics at the California Institute, one of the great scientific centres of learning, a post which he was to hold for the next 15 years.
In 1964 he returned to Frankfurt University as Professor of Mathematics, in which capacity he served until his death. He became a naturalized British citizen in 1947 and retained this citizenship despite his long period in the United States.
To Erdélyi over the years were accorded the academic honours that were his due. In 1940 he was awarded the degree of DSc (Edin). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1945, a Foreign Member of the Academy of Sciences of Torino in 1953, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1975. In 1977 he was awarded the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is a former president of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society and served on the Council of the American Mathematical Society. He held joint or associate editorship of several periodicals. He held visiting professorships at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, in 1956–57 and at the University of Melbourne in 1970.
Erdélyi was a mathematician of immense talent and had a wonderful ability to range across the fields of both pure and applied mathematics. He was primarily an analyst. His books and research papers, together with the achievements of his many research students, are a permanent record of the outstanding contribution he made to the subject of mathematics to which he devoted his life.
He is survived by his widow
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