Miklós Laczkovich

Miklós Laczkovich ( born February 21, 1948 in Budapest) is a Hungarian mathematician.

Laczkovich studied at the Lorand Eötvös University in Budapest ( completion 1971) and is a professor there. At the same time he is a professor at University College London.

Laczkovich deals with real analysis and measure theory. In 1989, he broke the circle squaring problem of Alfred Tarski (1925) and thus showed that it is possible to decompose a flat disc in a finite number of parts that can be put together to form a square of equal area. His proof was non- constructive, since it's the axiom of choice, much used, and he also used a very large number (of the order ) parts. He also used non- measurable quantities for the parts. When composing he came in the proof only with translations (without rotations). He also proved that such a decomposition for arbitrary planar polygons, and other bounded by sufficiently smooth curves surfaces is possible. Thus, the positive solution of the problem by Laczkovich for such surfaces a partial analogue of the Banach - Tarski paradox in three or more dimensions dar.

In 1993 he was awarded the Ostrowski Prize. Since 1993 he has been corresponding since 1998 and a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In 1998 he received the Széchenyi price.

As a member of A: N: S Chorus (tenor ), with whom he recorded also, he sings in his spare Renaissance choral music.

Writings

• Conjecture and Proof, Mathematical Association of America, Washington DC 2001, ISBN 0-88385-722-7