Person: Marczewski, Edward
Edward Marczewski was a Polish mathematician who worked in measure theory, descriptive set theory, general topology, probability theory and universal algebra.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- We will call him Marczewski for this biography.
- At the University of Warsaw he was taught by Kuratowski who was teaching the first year calculus course that Marczewski attended.
- The audience then was exceptionally large (about 300 persons), the largest in the pre-war period; Marczewski was the best.
- Kuratowski directed Marczewski's studies and gave him much personal attention.
- However it was two other mathematicians at the University of Warsaw who influenced Marczewski more than Kuratowski.
- These were Mazurkiewicz and Sierpiński who interested Marczewski in measure theory and related topics.
- He had remained interested in collaborating with Kuratowski and, in the same year as his doctorate was awarded, a joint paper by Marczewski and Kuratowski was published in Fundamenta Mathematicae.
- Marczewski was right, but sadly time were about to change.
- Marczewski was visiting Lwów when it was occupied by the German army and here, as throughout Poland, intellectuals perished.
- Then Marczewski returned to Warsaw, but in the capital things were equally difficult.
- For much of the war Marczewski survived in Warsaw suffering great hardships.
- In Wrocław, Marczewski was a prisoner of the Germans while the Russian forces besieged the city.
- On 6 May 1945 the Russian forces captured Wrocław and Marczewski was set free.
- The most important outcome which Marczewski worked for was the setting up of a Polish university in Wrocław.
- In addition to Marczewski, who was appointed as a professor, Steinhaus was appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.
- Marczewski later became rector of the University and served for four years in this role.
- The General Meeting considers it to be a matter of great importance that the Wrocław Section, under the direction of Professors B Knaster, E Marczewski, H Steinhaus and W Slebodzinski and in cooperation with the University and Technical University of Wrocław, should constitute one of the most active scientific centres radiating across the Western Territories.
- Marczewski founded the journal Colloquium Mathematicum in 1946 in Wrocław, and he was its editor-in-chief for 30 years.
- Marczewski was proposed as Deputy General Secretary of the Mathematical Institute.
- We should end by making comments on Marczewski's mathematics.
Born 15 November 1907, Warsaw, Russian Empire (now Poland). Died 17 October 1976, Wrocław, Poland.
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Origin Poland
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
