János Aczél (mathematician)

János Dezső Aczél FRSC (Hungarian: [ˈɒtseːl]; born 26 December 1924 in Budapest)^[1] is a Hungarian-Canadian mathematician, specializing in functional equations.

Professional career

Aczél is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Pure Mathematics at the University of Waterloo.^[2] He earned a doctorate in mathematical analysis from the University of Budapest, and joined the Waterloo faculty in 1965 after previously holding positions at the University of Cologne, Kossuth University, University of Miskolc, and University of Szeged.^[3]

He is the founder of the journal Aequationes Mathematicae, first published in 1968, and remains its honorary editor-in-chief.^[4]

Awards and honors

Aczél holds honorary degrees from the University of Karlsruhe, the University of Graz, and the University of Silesia in Katowice.^[3] In 1971, he was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.^[5] In 1990 he became an external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.^[1] In 2008 he became an honorary member of the Hamburg Mathematical Society, the oldest active mathematical society in the world.^[6]

He is the 1988 winner of the Santiago Ramón y Cajal Medal.^[3] In 2004 he won the Kampé de Fériet Award of the annual Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty conference, "for his pioneering work on the theory of functional equations, with applications in many fields, such as information measures, index numbers, group decision making, aggregation, production functions, laws of science, theory of measurement and utility theory."^[7]

Issues of the journal Aequationes Mathematicae were dedicated to Aczél in 1999, 2005, and 2010, in honor of his 75th, 80th and 85th birthdays.^[8][9][10]

Books

Aczél is the author or co-author of:

• Aczél, J.; Gołąb, S. (1960), Funktionalgleichungen der Theorie der geometrischen Objekte, Polska Akademia Nauk. Monografie Matematyczne, Tom 39, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warsaw, MR 0133763.^[11]
• Aczél, J. (1966), Lectures on functional equations and their applications, Mathematics in Science and Engineering 19, New York: Academic Press, MR 0208210. Previously published in German as Vorlesungen über Funktionalgleichungen und ihre Anwendungen (Birkhäuser, 1961).^[12][13][14]
• Aczél, J.; Daróczy, Z. (1975), On measures of information and their characterizations, Mathematics in Science and Engineering 115, New York: Academic Press [Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers], MR 0689178.^[15]
• Aczél, J. (1987), A short course on functional equations, Theory and Decision Library. Series B: Mathematical and Statistical Methods, Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Co., doi:10.1007/978-94-009-3749-9, ISBN 90-277-2376-1.^[16]
• Aczél, J.; Dhombres, J. (1989), Functional equations in several variables, Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications 31, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, doi:10.1017/CBO9781139086578, ISBN 0-521-35276-2.^[17]

References

1. Member listing, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, accessed 2013-01-25.
2. Emeritus/Adjunct faculty, Pure Mathematics, Waterloo, accessed 2013-01-25.
3. Biography as a speaker at the Marschak Colloquium at UCLA, 1999, accessed 2013-01-25.
4. Editorial board of Aequationes Mathematicae, accessed 2013-01-25.
5. RSC Fellow listing, accessed 2013-01-25.
6. János Aczél's Latest Honour, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, accessed 2013-01-25.
7. Kampé de Fériet Award, IPMU, accessed 2013-01-25.
8. Luce, R. Duncan (1999), "Personal reflections on an unintentional behavioral scientist", Aequationes Mathematicae 58 (1–2): 3–15, doi:10.1007/s000100050088.
9. Ebanks, Bruce; Ng, Che Tat (2005), "Tribute to a distinguished Professor: János Aczél at 80", Aequationes Mathematicae 69 (1-2): 1–5, doi:10.1007/s00010-004-2769-z, MR 2126180.
10. Ng, Che Tat (2010), "Tribute to a distinguished Professor János Aczél at 85", Aequationes Mathematicae 80 (1-2): 1–4, doi:10.1007/s00010-010-0052-z, MR 2736935.
11. Review of Funktionalgleichungen der Theorie der geometrischen Objekte by Albert Nijenhuis, MR 0133763.
12. Review of Vorlesungen über Funktionalgleichungen und ihre Anwendungen by Marek Kuczma, MR 0124647.
13. Review of Lectures on functional equations and their applications by M. Hosszú, MR 0208210.
14. Review of Lectures on Functional Equations and their Applications by Frank Hahn (1968), Amer. Math. Monthly 75 (3): 314, doi:10.2307/2314998.
15. Review of On measures of information and their characterizations by J. Kampé de Fériet (1977), Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 83 (2): 192–196, doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1977-14257-2.
16. Review of A short course on functional equations by Dale K. Osborne, MR 0875412.
17. Review of Functional equations in several variables by K. Lajkó, MR 1004465.

External links

• Aczél's homepage at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
• János Aczél at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• Author profile in the database zbMATH