Kazimierz Kuratowski (Warsaw, February 2, 1896 — June 18, 1980) was a Polish mathematician.

The life

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Kuratowski was from 1927 a professor of mathematics at the Lwów Polytechnic in Lwów, Poland, and from 1934 at Warsaw University. In 1945 he became a member of the Polish Academy of Learning, and in 1952 of the Polish Academy of Sciences. From 1948 until 1967 he was director of the Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and he was also a long-time chairman of the Polish and International Mathematics Societies.

The research

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Kuratowski's research was mainly focused on abstract topological and metric structures. With Alfred Tarski and Wacław Sierpiński he has provided most of the theory concerning polish spacesSee for instance the Kuratowski theorem in the Standard Borel spaces and Kuratowski theorems section of the article Borel algebra. (that are indeed named after these mathematicians and their legacy). His contributions to mathematics also include:

• a characterization of Hausdorff spaces in terms of what are now called Kuratowski closure axioms;
• proof of the Kuratowski-Zorn lemma;
• in graph theory, the characterization of planar graphs now known as Kuratowski's theorem;
• identification of the ordered pair $(x,y)$ with the set $\backslash \{\backslash \{x\backslash \},\; \backslash \{x,y\backslash \}\backslash \}$.
• the introduction of the Tarski-Kuratowski algorithm.

See also

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• Scottish Café
• Alfred Tarski
• Polish space

References

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• Kazimierz Kuratowski, A Half Century of Polish Mathematics: Remebrances and Reflections, Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1980, ISBN 0-08-023046-6.
• K Borsuk, On the achievements of Prof Dr Kazimierz Kuratowski in the realm of topology (in polish), Wiadomosci matematyczne (2) 3 (1960), 231-237.

External links

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• Biography of Kuratowski

Notes

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1896 births | 1980 deaths | 20th century mathematicians | Polish Academy of Learning | Polish Academy of Sciences | Polish mathematicians | Topologists

Kazimierz Kuratowski | Kazimierz Kuratowski | Kazimierz Kuratowski | カジミェシュ・クラトフスキ | Kazimierz Kuratowski | Kazimierz Kuratowski