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The World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions has announced the winners of its prestigious Paul Erdös Awards to be presented in 2000. The Paul Erdös Award was established to recognize mathematicians whose contributions have played a significant role in the development of mathematical challenges at the national level and which has been the stimulus for the enrichment of mathematics learning.
The Erdös Awards for 2000 go to Francisco Bellot Rosado of Spain, Istvan Reiman of Hungary and János Surányi, also of Hungary.
Francisco Bellot Rosado received the BA degree from University of Madrid in 1963 and has been associated with the Institute Emilio Ferrari of Valladolid in some capacity since 1966, serving both as secretary and as principal, and later as Associate Professor in the department of Algebra, Geometry and Topology.
After serving two years as deputy leaders of the Spanish Olympiad team in 1988 and 1989, he served for the next 8 years as team leader. He has been an active contributor to conferences of the World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions He has also been as avid contributor to problem journals such as to Crux Mathematicorum, the MAA Monthly, and Math Magazine. He has served as European representative of the WFNMC since 1996.
One of Francisco's recommenders said, referring to his Pravetz (1994) talk, "was about the practice of recycling competition problems in the problem creation and problem selection. He argued that for the sake of problem culture as well as for practical applications, e.g. mathematics competitions, originality was constantly required. Speaking softly, he delivered a true challenge."
Also Francisco Bellot-Rosado has been a very influential figure in another prestigious mathematical contest that involves more than twenty-five countries: the "Olimpiada Iberoamericana de Matematica" conducted by the "O. E. I." ( Organizacion de los Estados Iberoamericanos para la Educacion, la Ciencia y la Cultura or "Organization of the Iberoamerican States for Education, Science, and Culture". "Iberoamerican" meaning all Latin American countries plus Spain and Portugal ). Additionally, Francisco is noted for single-handedly founding a Mediterranean Regional Mathematics Olympiad.
Again quoting from a letter of nomination, "As an O. E. I.'s international expert, Francisco Bellot has visited many Latin American countries promoting the mathematical olympiads idea, taking care of organizational matters as well as technical aspects like frequent lectures and workshops about mathematical problem solving for students, "mathletes", and teachers. The efforts, orientation, and help from Francisco Bellot made it possible, in 1996, that Costa Rica became the first Central American country in being home for the XI O. E. I.'s Mathematical Olympiad. Presently, he is working on the organization and initiation of a new international mathematical olympiad for the six Central American countries and we are sure he will succeed as usual."
Istvan Reiman has graduated from Eötvös University in 1953 as a teacher of mathematics and physics, and later earned a PhD writing in the area of finite and combinatorial geometry. He taught at Technical University of Budapest from 1970 until 1992, serving as head of the Descriptive Geometry Department from 1986 until 1992. He has been training the Hungarian IMO team since 1961. He was the deputy team leader of the Hungarian team for more than 20 years.
His books International Mathematical Olympiad 1959-1994, and International Mathematical Olympiad 1995-1998, have a long introduction, which explains the significance of mathematics competitions in general, and the IMO in particular. The books include a year-by-year short description of the events at that year's IMO, the result of each of the countries and the individual result of the Hungarian students. Next come all the problems with solutions, often more than one. There is an appendix, which explains many of the theorems and ideas used.
Prof. Reiman wrote five other excellent books, mostly on geometric topics, among them one "Chapters from Elementary Geometry" which is very highly regarded. He also authored more than 60 shorter research papers and publications.
Istvan Reiman had tremendous influence on the Hungarian competition scene and more generally extra-school activities (which are of course connected with competitions as well). More than forty years ago he introduced a "Youth Mathematical Circle" where every three weeks invited speakers give talks on topics which are of interest to high-school students. Another biweekly event is an afternoon of problem solving where students tell their own solutions on the spot and are also given take home exercises. Prof. Reiman is in the committee of about a dozen competitions, among them the prestigious Kürschák competition.
Professor János Surányi was born in Budapest in 1918. He received his undergraduate degree in 1941 and his PhD in 1943. He began teaching at University of Szeged as an assistant in 1950 without pay. Since 1950 he has worked at Eötvös University Budapest, and since 1960 has held the rank of full professor. During the last four decades, he has been engaged in mathematics education and didactics, besides doing research in mathematics proper. One of his greatest merits is that after the Second World War he restarted Kozepiskolai Matematikai Lapok (KoMaL). This world famous journal which is more than 100 years old ceased to exist due to war circumstances and lay sleeping until Professor Surányi restarted it. The journal has been a very important factor in the popularization of mathematics, in particular of solving mathematical problems by high school students. János Surányi has served as editor-in-chief since 1970.
János Surányi is very active on the extensive Hungarian competition scene, among others he has been chairman of the Kürschák competition committee for almost thirty years. He also has the great merit of publishing no fewer than 10 books, several of which are the problems of these competitions not only with solutions but also with valuable comments, first with co-authors and after the death of the co-authors, alone. These books have been translated into several languages, e.g. Russian and Japanese.
The MAA published two books in English on the earliest years (1894 to 1928) in 1963. Andy Liu is currently preparing books for the later years for publication by the MAA.
Professor Surányi was also active in ICMI serving on the Executive committee of that organization. His organization of special classes is noted and some of his students from those classes are now well-known mathematicians, L. Lovasz and L Babai.