Endre Szemerédi - The Abel Prize interview 2012

0:28 Early interest in mathematics
3:01 High schools in Hungary specializing in mathematics
4:38 Started studying mathematics at the age of 22
7:24 Professor Paul Turán inspired me to become a mathematician
8:57 Relationship between Paul Turán and Atle Selberg
9:24 Other influences and collaborators
10:47 Collaboration with Paul Erdős
12:39 Erdős is probably the greatest mathematician in posing important problems
13:40 Random methods, for instance?
16:13 Erdős and Random Graph Theory
17:34 Graduate work, Israel Gelfand, Alexander Gelfond and a spelling error
24:00 Graduate work continues
25:40 Communication between Gelfand and Gelfond
26:33 Why is Hungary producing so many great mathematicians? (János Bolyai, the Riesz brothers, Frigyes and Marcel; Lipót Fejér; Gábor Szego˝, Alfréd Haar; Tibor Radó; John von Neumann, Paul Turán; Paul Erdős; Alfréd Rényi; Raoul Bot, Peter Lax, Béla Bollobás and László Lovász)
31:26 The journal KöMaL has also been important for the development of Hungarian mathematics
35:08 On the Szemerédi theorem, the solution to Erdős-Turán conjecture
39:50 How did you get interested in the problem?
45:48 The Szemerédi theorem and Furstenberg’s multiple recurrence theorem
50:53 The ramifications of the Szemerédi theorem theorem
55:22 Szemerédi regularity theorem, random graphs and extremal graphs explained
58:39 Applications in theoretical computer science
59:41 Do you agree that the Szemerédi theorem is your greatest achievement?
1:03:02 It is said, tounge in cheek, that a typical combinatorialist is a bright mathematician with an aversion to learning or embracing abstract mathematics. Does this description fit you?
1:06:16 Combinatorics relation to the rest of mathematics
1:08:40 How did your key ideas arise. Working hard at your desk, or in more relaxed situations?
1:10:21 Fascination with soccer

Read the full interview in Notices of the American Mathematical Society: https://www.ams.org/notices/201302/rn...

The 2012 Abel Prize interview with Endre Szemerédi
Interviewers: Mathematicians Martin Raussen og Christian Skau
Produced by UniMedi