Dénes Kőnig

Dénes Kőnig
Born	(1884-09-21)September 21, 1884 Budapest, Austria-Hungary
Died	October 19, 1944(1944-10-19) (aged 60) Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary
Nationality	Hungary
Alma mater	Technical University of Budapest
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	Technical University of Budapest
Doctoral advisor	József Kürschák Hermann Minkowski
Doctoral students	Tibor Gallai

Dénes Kőnig (September 21, 1884 – October 19, 1944) was a Jewish Hungarian mathematician who worked in and wrote the first textbook on the field of graph theory.

Kőnig was born in Budapest, the son of mathematician Gyula Kőnig. In 1907, he received his doctorate at, and joined the faculty of the Technische Hochschule in Budapest (today Technical University of Budapest). His classes were visited by Paul Erdős, who, as a first year student, solved one of his problems. Kőnig became a full professor there in 1935. To honor his fathers' death in 1913, Kőnig and his brother Győrgy created the Gyula Kőnig prize in 1918. This prize was meant to be an endowment for young mathematicians, however was later devaluated. But the prize remained as a medal of high scientific recognition. In 1899, he published his first work while still attending High School in a journal Matematikai ès Fizikai Lapok. After his graduation in 1902, he won first place in a mathematical competition "Eőtvős Lorád". Shortly after he wrote the first of two book collections Matematikai Mulatságok (Mathematical Entertainments). He spent four semesters at the university in Budapest and his last five in Gottingen. During which he studied under a famous Mathematicians József Kürschák and Hermann Minkowski. He then received his in 1907 due to his dissertation in geometry, that same year he began working for the Technische Hochschule in Budapest and remained apart of the faculty till his death in 1944. At first he started as an assistant in problem sessions, in 1910 he was promoted to "oberassistant", and then promoted to "Privatdocent" in 1911 teaching nomography, analysis situs (later to be known as Topology), set theory, real numbers and functions, and graph theory (the name "graph theory" didn't appear in the university catalogue until 1927). During this time he would be a guest speaker giving mathematics lecture for architecture and chemistry students, in 1920 these lectures made their way in to book form. He finally gained full professorship in 1935 at the Technische Hochschule.
From 1915 to 1942 he was on a committee to judge school contests in mathematics, collecting problems for these contests, and organizing them. Then in 1933 he was elected as secretary of the society and in 1942 he became the chairman of this committee. He then decided to make edits in the society's journal during his time on the committee till his death. Kőnig's activities and lectures played a vital role in the growth of graph theoritcal work of: Làszló Edyed, Pál Erdös, Tibor Gallai, Győrgy Hájos, Jószef Kraus, Tibor Szele, Pál Turán, Endre Vázsonyi, and many others. He then went on to write the first book on graph theory Theorie de endlichen und unendlichen Graphen in 1936. This marked the beginning of graph theory as its' own branch of mathematics. Then in 1958, Claude Berg wrote the second book on graph theory, Thèorie des Graphes et ses applications, following Kőnig. After the occupation of Hungary by the Nazis, fortunately for persecuted mathematicians he worked to help them.
On October 15, 1944 the Nazi-affiliated Hungarian Natinal Socialist Party took over the country, days later on October 19, 1944 he committed suicide to evade persecution from the Nazis being a Hungarian Jew.

• Accomplishments

1899 - Matematikai ès Fizikai Lapok written while attending High School

1902 - First place in "Eőtvős Lorád"

1907 - Recieved his Doctorate's Degree

1910 - promoted to "oberassistant"

1911 - promoted to "Privatdocent" in 1911 teaching nomography, analysis situs (later to be known as Topology), set theory, real numbers and functions, and graph theory

1935 - gain full professorship at Technische Hochschule

1936 - he the wrote the first book on Graph Theory, Theorie de endlichen und unendlichen Graphen

See also

• König's theorem (graph theory)
• König's theorem (set theory) is due to Denes' father, Gyula Kőnig.
• König's lemma
• Labyrinth Problem

Bibliography

• Chartrand, Gary. A first course in graph theory. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. ISBN 9780486483689. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Kőnig, Dénes (1936), Theorie der endlichen und unendlichen Graphen, Leipzig: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft. Translated from German by Richard McCoart, Theory of finite and infinite graphs, Birkhäuser, 1990, ISBN 0-8176-3389-8.

External links

• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Dénes Kőnig", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
• Dénes Kőnig at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• a Hungarian biography site
• Dénes Kőnig Prize