Péter Frankl facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Péter Frankl
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Peter Frankl at a mathematics conference in Tehran in May 2009
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| Born | 26 March 1953 Hungary
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| Awards | Silver and gold medal at IMO, The Minister of Foreign Affairs Prize of the Japan Prize, silver award from US international film festival |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Combinatorics |
| Doctoral advisor | Gyula O.H. Katona |
Péter Frankl (born on March 26, 1953, in Kaposvár, Hungary) is a very talented mathematician. He is also a street performer, a writer for newspapers, and a teacher. He lives in Japan and is quite well-known there, often appearing on TV.
Péter studied mathematics at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He even finished his PhD research while he was still an undergraduate student! He also has a PhD from the University Paris Diderot. Since 1988, he has lived in Japan. He travels all over the country, performing (juggling) and giving fun talks about many different topics.
Péter won a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 1971. This is a big competition for young math whizzes. He has worked with other famous mathematicians like Paul Erdős and Ronald Graham. His main area of study is called combinatorics, which is about counting and arranging things. He is also known for an idea called the union-closed sets conjecture.
Contents
About Péter Frankl
His Background
Péter's parents survived very difficult times. They taught him that "The only things you own are in your heart and brain." This important lesson inspired him to become a mathematician. Péter often gives talks about how important it is to treat everyone fairly and to avoid judging people based on their background.
Amazing Abilities
Péter was very good at math from a young age. He could multiply two-digit numbers when he was only four years old! He speaks 12 different languages. These include Hungarian, English, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish. He has given math lectures in many countries using these languages. He has also traveled to more than 100 countries around the world.
What He Does
Learning and Teaching
Péter learned how to juggle from his friend, the mathematician Ronald Graham. Péter and another mathematician, Vojtěch Rödl, solved a difficult math problem that Paul Erdős had offered $1000 for! A friend named Zsolt Baranyai helped Péter get a scholarship to study in France. There, he became a research fellow for a group called CNRS.
Helping Japanese Math Students
From 1984 to 1990, Péter and a person named Akiyama worked very hard. They helped organize a Japanese team for the International Mathematical Olympiad. Because of their efforts, Japan now regularly sends a team to this big math competition.
Since 1998, Péter has been an external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. This means he is a respected expert who helps the Academy from outside Hungary.
Books He Wrote
Péter has written more than thirty books in Japanese! He also worked with László Babai on a book about "Linear Algebra Methods in Combinatorics." With Norihide Tokushige, he wrote a book called Extremal Problems For Finite Sets (published in 2018).
Frankl's Big Idea
Péter Frankl is famous for something called the union-closed sets conjecture. It's a tricky math problem, but here's the basic idea:
Imagine you have a group of different sets of things. If you combine any two of these sets, the new set you make is also part of your original group. The conjecture says that if you have such a group of sets (and it's not just an empty group), there must be at least one item that appears in half or more of the sets in your group.
