Peter Szüsz Explained

Peter Szüsz (11 November 1924 – 16 February 2008)^[1] was a Serbian-Hungarian-American mathematician known^[2] for his proof (1961) of the Gauss-Kuzmin Theorem, his work in probabilistic number theory, and his book with Andrew M. Rockett on Continued Fractions.^{[3] [4]}

Early life

Born in Novi Sad, Serbia, he grew up in Budapest, Hungary, attending the Eötvös József Gimnázium and beginning his life-long passions for chess,^[5] music,^[6] and mathematics. He was the son of Irma (née Oberson) and Felix Szusz. He had one brother, Adam (Allen Saunders). In 1944 he was drafted into forced labour service and sent to the Heidenau Lager at the copper mines near Bor,^{[7] [8] [9] [10]} but escaped from the Nazi SS death march to Cservenka and was hidden by the Gyulai family near Kula until the end of the war.^[11]

Career

After studying first electrical engineering and then mathematics at the University of Budapest, he became a Research Fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Science from 1950 to 1965, received his Ph.D. as a student of Pál Turán in 1951,^[12] and became a Doctor of Science at the Academy in 1962. He fled communist Hungary in 1965, became a Full Professor of Mathematics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (now Stony Brook University) in 1966 and retired in 1994.^[13]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Peter Szüsz Obituary (2022) New York Times . 2022-03-28 . Legacy.com.
2. Volkmann . Bodo . 2008 . On the death of Peter Szüsz . Uniform Distribution Theory . 3 . 1 . 149–151.
3. Book: Rockett . Andrew M. . Continued Fractions . Szüsz . Peter . World Scientific . 1992 . 978-981-02-1052-6 . Singapore and Teaneck, NJ.
4. Niven . Ivan . January 1994 . Book Review of Continued Fractions by Andrew M. Rockett and Peter Szüsz . Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society . New Series. 30 . 1 . 109–111. 10.1090/S0273-0979-1994-00442-2 .
5. His last listing in (US Chess Federation) Chess Life is on page 40 of the April 2009 issue in the "2008 Yearbook" section as holding the title of Master Solver awarded by the Society of U S Chess Problemists.
6. Web site: Jacobs . Konrad . 1986 . Oberwolfach Photo Collection, Photo ID 4132 . 2022-03-31 . Oberwolfach Photo Collection.
7. Web site: DEGOB: National Committee for Attending Deportees . 2022-03-22 . . Follow the link to "Labour Service" for more about the camps at Bor..
8. Book: Andai, Ferenc . Mint tank szólni: Bori történet . Ab Ovo . 2003 . 9639378178 . To Bear Witness: A Story of Bor.
9. Book: Andai, Ferenc . In the Hour of Fate and Danger . Azrieli Foundation . 2020 . 9781988065564 . Azrieli series of Holocaust survivor memoirs. Series XII . Morry . Marietta . English translation of "To Bear Witness: A Story of Bor" from Hungarian "Mint tank szólni: Bori történet" . Muir . Lynda.
10. Andai (2003), page 30 [Andai (2020), page 29], recalls him playing Mozart on a violin borrowed from Miklós Lorsi.
11. Andai (2003), pages 160-161 [Andai (2020), pages 183-184].
12. Web site: Mathematics Genealogy Project : Peter Szüsz .
13. Volkmann (2008), page 149.