| Department of Geometry |
| Bolyai Institute, Faculty of Science, University of Szeged |
| Department of Geometry |
| Bolyai Institute, Faculty of Science, University of Szeged |
In the second part of the 1890's the Magyar Királyi Ferencz József Tudományegyetem (Ferencz József University) was operatig in Kolozsvár, Romania (then part of Hungary), and at that time ``in spirit of higher education'' the Mathematical Seminar was founded at the unversity. The geomerty section was called the Institute of Descriptive Geometry, and Lipót Klug was appointed as its head. He retired in 1917, and the geometry lectures were temporarly covered by Frigyes Riesz and Alfréd Haar. The university and its institutes moved to Szeged, Hungary after the World War I., the teaching activities started in the academic year 1921-1922.
The Institute of Descriptive Geometry was located on the ground floor of the central building on Dugonics square, temporarly Haar worked as it's director and Tibor Radó was Haar's only instructor. In 1924 Radó was promoted to assistant professor, and János Kudar was applied as instructor. Riesz and Haar felt that they should hire a full professor, Béla Kerékjártó was their candidate, and they also suggested to change the name of the institute to Institute of Geometry. For a short time the position was filled by Hildegárd Szmodits (from the Technical University, Budapest), but in 30th November 1925 Kerékjártó took the chair. After Kudar had left the institute, István Lipka was hired (1st September 1926) as instructor.
Lipka became assistant professor in 1935 under the supervision of Kerékjártó. Kerékjártó moved to Budapest in 1938, then for a year Riesz acted as director, then on 19th July 1939 Gyula Szőkefalvi-Nagy was appointed as a full professor, and he became the director of the Institute of Geometry and Descriptive Geometry.
Kerékjártó, based on the traditions, developed and modernized the geometry lectures. He taught Bolyai-geometry in the course Non-eucledian geometry, and he gave lectures in complex geometry, geometrical group theory, foundamentals of geometry, and also, from 1934, in topology. He prepared his famous monography Foundamentals of geomerty, that was translated to French later. Meanwhile Radó taught two courses: Arc-length and surface area, and Minimal surfaces. Courses given by Gyula Szőkefalvi-Nagy included Algebraic and geometric theory of curves, Topology of curves, On the roots of algebraic equations, and Geometric constructions.
The strength of mathematics in Szeged in Hungarian mathematical life is demonstrated by the fact, that the most prestigious prize given between the world wars, the Kőnig Gyula Reward (or more precisely the Kőnig Gyula Medal, that took the reward's place after it became practically worthless) was awarded to Gyula Szőkefalvi-Nagy, László Kalmár and István Lipka. Alfréd Haar, Bél Kerékjártó and Gyula Szőkefalvi-Nagy were corresponding members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, furthermore Frigyes Riesz in 1936 became a full member after being corresponding member for about 20 years.
The Ferenc József University returned to Kolozsvár in 1940, where after World War II it ceased to exist. The Hungarian goverment founded the Horty Miklós University in Szeged in 1940. From the professors in mathematics only Gyula Szőkefalvi-Nagy followed the university to Kolozsvár, his chair was taken by László Rédei, who has just won the Kőnig Gyula Medal as a high school teacher. The institute's name was simplyfied to Institute of Geometry. In 1945 Gyula Szőkefalvi-Nagy returned to Szeged, and he became the director of the revived Institute of Descriptive Geometry in 1948.
The Bolyai Institute moved to the building of a former high school in 1952, and since then it has been continuously operating there. Known staff members at that time were János Aczél and István Fáry, both moved to the United States later.
Gyula Szőkefalvi-Nagy passed away in 1953, his chair stood empty for a long period, despite the excellent differential geometer Arthur Moór, or well-known geometers from Budapest such as Gyula Soós and János Szenthe all worked in Szeged.
The Bolyai Institute was officially divided into departments in 1967, this is the official date when the Department of Geometry was founded, the first chair was Béla Szőkefalvi-Nagy.
Between 1975 and 1982 László Lovász became the chair of the department, he was followed by Péter Nagy, who moved to the University of Debrecen in 1995.
In the next five years three people acted as chairs: Péter Hajnal, Nándor Simányi (who left Szeged in 1998, and moved to the University of Alabama at Birmingham) and János Kincses.
In 2000 Árpád Kurusa was appointed as chair, and he currently holds the position.
See also the consolidated list of colleagues.
