Mathematician:Cornelius Lanczos

Mathematician

Hungarian mathematician and physicist who worked on relativity and mathematical physics.

Invented what is now called the Fast Fourier Transform.

Nationality

Hungarian, then Hungarian-American, then Hungarian-Irish

History

• Born: February 2, 1893 in Székesfehérvár, Kingdom of Hungary
• Died: June 25, 1974 in Budapest, Hungary

Theorems and Definitions

• Lanczos Algorithm (also known as the Lanczos Method)
• Lanczos Approximation
• Lanczos Differentiator
• Lanczos Resampling
• Lanczos Sigma Factor
• Lanczos Tensor

• Lanczos-van Stockum Dust (with Willem Jacob van Stockum)

Definitions of concepts named for Cornelius Lanczos can be found here.

Publications

• 1949: The Variational Principles of Mechanics (further editions $1962$, $1966$, $1970$)
• 1956: Applied Analysis
• 1961: Linear Differential Operators
• 1966: Albert Einstein and the cosmic world order
• 1966: Discourse on Fourier Series
• 1968: Numbers without End
• 1970: Judaism and Science
• 1970: Space through the Ages
• 1974: The Einstein Decade (1905 - 1915)

Also known as

Hungarian name: Lánczos Kornél.

Till $1906$, his name was Kornél Lőwy (in Hungarian: Löwy (or Lőwy) Kornél).

The name was changed for political reasons; in Hungary at the time, to have a German-sounding name was unpopular.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Cornelius Lanczos": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Lanczos method
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Lanczos method