Riesz, Frigyes

Frigyes Riesz, (born Jan. 22, 1880, Györ, Austria-Hungary [now in Hungary]—died Feb. 28, 1956, Budapest, Hungary), Hungarian mathematician and pioneer of functional analysis, which has found important applications to mathematical physics.

Riesz taught mathematics at the University of Kolozsvár (Cluj) from 1911 and in 1922 became editor of the newly founded Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum, which quickly found a position of distinction among the mathematical journals of the world. He was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Budapest in 1945.

Many of Riesz’s fundamental findings in functional analysis were incorporated with those of Stefan Banach of Poland. The Riesz-Fischer theorem of 1907, concerning the equivalence of the Hilbert space of sequences of convergent sums of squares with the space of functions of summable squares, formed the mathematical basis for demonstrating the equivalence of matrix mechanics and wave mechanics, a major breakthrough in early quantum theory. He made notable contributions in many other areas, including ergodic theory, orthonormal series, the theory of partially ordered vector spaces, and topology.