Szekeres G and E

George Szekeres

Born Budapest 1911

Died Adelaide 28 August 2005

Esther Klein Szekeres

Born Budapest 1910

Died Adelaide 28 August 2005

Other than Bernhard Neumann, George and Esther Szekeres (seen above receiving their BH Neumann Awards of the Australian Mathematics Trust in 1993) were the other two great nonagenarian Australian mathematicians in recent years, all three having established their mathematical traditions in Europe before having to make their way out during the 1930s and eventually finding themselves in Australia.

George and Esther first met in a mathematics club in Budapest in 1933 and were married in 1936. They escaped the nazi persecution just in time and arrived at a safe refuge in Shanghai where they stayed during the war. After the war George was offered a lectureship at the University of Adelaide, which he took up in 1948. In 1963 he moved to Sydney to take up a chair at the University of New South Wales. He remained in this position until retirement in 1976.

George remained active in research, still working in an office in UNSW until well after his 90th birthday, where he continued to produce significant results. Only in 2004 did they return to live in Adelaide, where both of their children lived and also Esther's close life long friend Marta Sved (who has in turn since died in Adelaide later in 2005).

Esther and Marta were in the same class at a high school in Budapest and both loved mathematics. Because of quotas only one of them could participate in the national mathematics competition, while the other in the equivalent physics competition. It became history that Marta ended up writing the mathematics competition and finished in the honour list in third place. Number one student in that year, 1928, was George Sved, who later became Marta's husband.

After retirement George became very active in helping set up Australia's Mathematics Olympiad structure, particular with the training. George was Deputy Leader of the Australian team in its first years and did much of the training, especially for the students in Sydney. George's Sunday nights at this time were always reserved at home for students who visited him to work through training problems.

While at UNSW George was the strongest influence in establishing the school mathematics magazine Parabola, modelled on similar ideas he had brought from Hungary. Parabola is still published today, via an editorial team from UNSW, but now this magazine is published by the Australian Mathematics Trust, and the equivalent Monash magazine Function has been merged in with it.

Esther, like her friend Marta, had a strong teaching commitment. She joined the staff of Macquarie University and was one of the best known academics there during her career.

Known in Hungary as Esther Klein (her maiden name), Esther was featured in the recent film on the life of Paul Erdös, the most famous Hungarian mathematician, who was a friend of both George and Esther, which resulted in Erdös often visiting Australia.

Esther was active in other enrichment activities and was one of those teachers who most frequently worked with the Chatswood enrichment program organised by Terry Gagen.

Both George and Esther had many other interests, including music and art. George in fact played viola in the Ku-rin-gai Philharmonic Orchestra, and both enjoyed bushwalking.

Significantly, both George and Esther have composed separate problems which were set in International Mathematical Olympiad papers.

George was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2002.

They are survived by son Peter, who is an mathematical physicist at the University of Adelaide, and daughter Judy.

Peter Taylor

December 2005

(with acknowledgement to information published in the Sydney Telegraph and the Adelaide Advertiser for some details.)