Witold Hurewicz

Witold Hurewicz (June 29, 1904 – September 6, 1956) was a Polish mathematician.

Witold Hurewicz was born in Łódź, at the time one of the main Polish industrial hub with economy focused on the textile industry. His father, Mieczysław Hurewicz, was an industrialist born in Wilno which until 1939 was mainly populated by Poles and Jews. His mother was Katarzyna Finkelsztain who hailed from Biała Cerkiew, a town which belonged to the Kingdom of Poland until the Second Partition of Poland (1793) when it was taken by Russia.

Hurewicz attended school in a German-controlled Poland but with World War I beginning before he had begun secondary school, major changes occurred in Poland. In August 1915 the Russian forces which had held Poland for many years withdrew. Germany and Austria-Hungary took control of most of the country and the University of Warsaw was refounded and it began operating as a Polish university. Rapidly, a strong school of mathematics grew up in the University of Warsaw, with topology one of the main topics. Although Hurewicz knew intimately the topology that was being studied in Poland he chose to go to Vienna to continue his studies.

He studied under Hans Hahn and Karl Menger in Vienna, receiving a Ph.D. in 1926. Hurewicz was awarded a Rockefeller scholarship which allowed him to spend the year 1927-28 in Amsterdam. He was assistant to Brouwer in Amsterdam from 1928 to 1936. He was given study leave for a year which he decided to spend in the United States. He visited the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey and then decided to remain in the United States and not return to his position in Amsterdam.

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