Gyula O. H. Katona (born 16 March 1941 in Budapest) is a Hungarian mathematician known for his work in combinatorial set theory, and especially for the Kruskal–Katona theorem and his beautiful and elegant proof of the

Erdős–Ko–Rado theorem In mathematics, the Erdős–Ko–Rado theorem limits the number of sets in a family of sets for which every two sets have at least one element in common. Paul Erdős, Chao Ko, and Richard Rado proved the theorem in 1938, but did not publish it ...

in which he discovered a new method, now called Katona's cycle method. Since then, this method has become a powerful tool in proving many interesting results in

extremal set theory Extremal combinatorics is a field of combinatorics, which is itself a part of mathematics. Extremal combinatorics studies how large or how small a collection of finite objects (numbers, graphs, vectors, sets, etc.) can be, if it has to satisfy cert ...

. He is affiliated with the

Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics The Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics ( hu, Rényi Alfréd Matematikai Kutatóintézet) is the research institute in mathematics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It was created in 1950 by Alfréd Rényi, who directed it until his death. ...

of the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its ma ...

. Katona was secretary-general of the

János Bolyai Mathematical Society The János Bolyai Mathematical Society (Bolyai János Matematikai Társulat, BJMT) is the Hungarian mathematical society, named after János Bolyai, a 19th-century Hungarian mathematician, a co-discoverer of non-Euclidean geometry. It is the profes ...

from 1990 to 1996. In 1966 and 1968 he won the

Grünwald Prize Grünwald (transliterated Gruenwald) is German for "green forest" and may refer to: Places * Grünwald, Austria, town in Aigen-Schlägl municipality, Rohrbach, Austria * Grünwald, Bavaria, municipality south of Munich, Germany People * Alfred ...

, awarded by the Bolyai Society to outstanding young mathematicians, he was awarded the

Alfréd Rényi Prize The Alfréd Rényi Prize is awarded biennially by the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics of the Hungarian Academy of Science The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious le ...

of the

in 1975, and the same academy awarded him the Prize of the Academy in 1989. In 2011 the Alfréd Rényi Institute, the János Bolyai Society and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences organized a conference in honor of Katona's 70th birthday.. Gyula O.H. Katona is the father of

Gyula Y. Katona Gyula Y. Katona (born 4 December 1965) is a Hungarian mathematician, the son of mathematician Gyula O. H. Katona. He received his Ph.D. in 1997 from Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akad ...

, another Hungarian mathematician with similar research interests to those of his father.

References

External links

Katona's web site

Katona on IMDB
appearing as himself in

N is a Number N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences 20th-century Hungarian mathematicians Combinatorialists 1941 births Living people {{europe-mathematician-stub