George Pólya

George Pólya
George Pólya, circa 1973
Born	(1887-12-13)December 13, 1887 Budapest, Austria-Hungary
Died	September 7, 1985(1985-09-07) (aged 97) Palo Alto, California
Nationality	Hungarian (–1918) Swiss (1918–1947) American (1947–his death)
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	ETH Zürich Stanford University
Alma mater	Eötvös Loránd University
Doctoral advisor	Lipót Fejér
Doctoral students	Albert Edrei Hans Einstein Fritz Gassmann Albert Pfluger Walter Saxer James J. Stoker
Known for	How to Solve It Multivariate Pólya distribution Pólya conjecture Pólya enumeration theorem Landau–Kolmogorov inequality Pólya–Vinogradov inequality Pólya inequality Pólya–Aeppli distribution Pólya urn model Fueter–Pólya theorem
Influenced	Imre Lakatos

George Pólya (/ˈpoʊl.jə/; Hungarian: Pólya György, pronounced [ˈpoːjɒ ˈɟørɟ]; December 13, 1887 – September 7, 1985) was a Hungarian mathematician. He was a professor of mathematics from 1914 to 1940 at ETH Zürich and from 1940 to 1953 at Stanford University. He made fundamental contributions to combinatorics, number theory, numerical analysis and probability theory. He is also noted for his work in heuristics and mathematics education.

He was born as Pólya György in Budapest, Austria-Hungary to Anna Deutsch and Jakab Pólya, Roman Catholics who converted from Judaism in 1886. Although his parents were religious and he was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, George Pólya grew up to be an agnostic. He was a professor of mathematics from 1914 to 1940 at ETH Zürich in Switzerland and from 1940 to 1953 at Stanford University. He remained Stanford Professor Emeritus for the rest of his life and career. He worked on a range of mathematical topics, including series, number theory, mathematical analysis, geometry, algebra, combinatorics, and probability.