Lajos Szilassi
{{Short description|Hungarian mathematician}}
File:Szilassi polyhedron.gif]]
Lajos Szilassi (born in 1942 in Szentes, Hungary) was a professor of mathematics at the University of Szeged who worked in projective and non-Euclidean geometry, applying his research to computer generated solutions to geometric problems.[http://www.math.u-szeged.hu/Geo/_site/index.php/en/news-blog/161-szilassi-70 Lajos Szilassi is 70] Department of Geometry, Bolyai Institute, Faculty of Science, University of Szeged
Biography
Szilassi obtained his undergraduate degree in 1966 at the Bolyai Institute of the József Attila University, majoring in mathematical representation geometry. He taught for six years in a secondary school before joining the Department of Mathematics at Gyula Juhász Teacher Training College.Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Kar, University of Szeged In 1981, he received a bachelor's associate degree. He then received his Doctor rerum naturalium degree at the University of Szeged (1978) under László Lovász with the dissertation Polyhedra bounded by pairwise adjacent faces.[https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=178633 Lajos Szilassi] at the Mathematics Genealogy Project He received his PhD in 2006.PhD was not introduced in Hungary until the 1990s. Before that the scientific degrees were university doctorate and candidate of sciences. Most universities converted these earlier scientific degrees to PhD. Thus, Lajos received his university doctorate in 1978 and his PhD in 2006.
From 1973 until he retired in 2007, he was a professor of mathematics at the University of Szeged.[http://www.model.u-szeged.hu/index.php?action=staff&cmd=show%20staff&staff%20id=11 CV of Louis Szilassi Ph.D.] János Bolyai Mathematical Institute He worked in the areas of geometry, elementary mathematics, and computer science, with an emphasis on computer generated solutions of geometric problems.
Szilassi polyhedron
In 1977, Szilassi discovered a toroidal polyhedron with seven hexagonal faces, in which each pair of faces share an edge. The new construction was soon dubbed the Szilassi polyhedron.Szilassi, Lajos (1986), "[http://www-iri.upc.es/people/ros/StructuralTopology/ST13/st13-06-a3-ocr.pdf Regular toroids]" (PDF), Structural Topology, 13: 69–80 This is mathematically significant because the tetrahedron and the Szilassi polyhedron are the only two known polyhedra in which each face shares an edge with each other face. Martin Gardner featured the Szilassi polyhedron in his November 1978 Mathematical Games column in Scientific American.{{citation
| doi = 10.1038/scientificamerican1178-22
| last = Gardner | first = Martin | author-link = Martin Gardner
| title = In which a mathematical aesthetic is applied to modern minimal art
| journal = Scientific American
| pages = 22–32
| department = Mathematical Games
| issue = 5
| volume = 239
| year = 1978
| jstor = 24955839}}
On April 29, 2002 the French government installed a sculpture of the "Szilassi-Polyhedron" in the town of Beaumont-de-Lomagne, the birthplace of Fermat, on the 400th anniversary of his birth.[http://www.jgypk.hu/tanszek/matematika/personal/Szilassi/Fermat/index.html Szilassi-polyhedron In the birthplace of Fermat] by Lajos Szilassi There are also large scale renderings of the polyhedron in Canberra, Australia[https://www.questacon.edu.au/visiting/galleries/outdoor/exhibits/szilassi-polyhedron Szilassi-Polyhedron] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200321104631/https://www.questacon.edu.au/visiting/galleries/outdoor/exhibits/szilassi-polyhedron |date=2020-03-21 }}
Questacon — The National Science and Technology Centre and Whitehall, Michigan.[https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/wm10YPV%20Szilassi%20Polyhedron%20Whitehall%20Michigan An abstract sculpture located in Whitehall, Michigan] Waymarking.com
References
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External links
- {{MathGenealogy|id=178633}}
- [http://symmetry-us.com/Journals/visbook/szilassi/ On some regular toroids], Lajos Szilassi
- [http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/junkyard/szilassi.html Szilassi polyhedron, toroidal polyhedron]
- [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lajos_Szilassi/publications publications], Lajos Szilassi
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Category:University of Szeged alumni
Category:Academic staff of the University of Szeged
Category:20th-century Hungarian mathematicians