Péter Pál Pálfy: László Lovász Is a Living Refutation of Stereotypes About Mathematicians

A book of interviews titled A Discrete Mathematician – Conversations with László Lovász was published about the pioneering research professor.

“In a democratic society, it is important that as many people as possible have some idea of what the different sciences actually do.”
“Everyone should be taught to use their mind a little more rationally. We should encourage more people to think mathematically, more precisely and exactly.”
“One should always appreciate a gesture, even if serious disagreements came before it.”
“Our minds must constantly be sharpened and cultivated, preferably starting as early as possible. Most children enjoy games that make them think, board games, chess. We can build on this; we should make much better use of it.”

Here are four randomly selected, yet highly ars poetical thoughts from Abel Prize-winning professor László Lovász, former president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the International Mathematical Union, former director of the Mathematics Institute at Eötvös Loránd University, and research professor at Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics. Numerous fascinating mathematical, public, and personal details of this immense lifetime achievement unfold before the reader in Gyula Staar’s book A Discrete Mathematician.
The interviewer, Gyula Staar – recipient of the Academic Journalism Prize and former editor-in-chief of the journal Természet Világa (Nature's World) – compiled six interviews into a single volume and enriched them with many additional curiosities, including observations from fellow mathematicians and dozens of family photographs. The first interview was conducted in the late 1970s, the last in 2021. The result is a documented glimpse into decades of Hungarian and international mathematics as well as scientific life, presented in an engaging, accessible, and sophisticated way.

Appropriately, the book launch was held in the Grand Hall of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, only a few days after László Lovász received the Academy's Gold Medal from the Presidium of the Academy. The world-famous mathematician believes the award recognized not only his mathematical achievements but also the stance he took during his presidency, when he fought against the separation of the research network. As he put it at the Academy’s ceremonial session in the Assembly Hall, he was involved in that struggle “with heart and soul.”

As president of the Academy, he says, he served science as a whole, and he still carries painful memories of that ultimately lost battle into which he was forced. “A kind, friendly, and wise man,” who is “a living refutation of stereotypes about mathematicians,” who “lives in a happy marriage with the love he met in secondary school and took part as a caring, loving father in raising their four children. Meanwhile, he is one of the world’s most significant mathematicians and is not afraid to undertake scientific leadership roles either” – writes fellow researcher Péter Pál Pálfy in the preface to A Discrete Mathematician – Conversations with László Lovász. Pálfy also moderated the discussion at the book launch, and through his stylish and humor-filled questions, even new information emerged about Professor Lovász beyond what is included in the book itself.
 

At the presentation, Lovász himself also praised Gyula Staar’s work as an author, highlighting his interviewer’s insightfulness and preparedness. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the interviews collectively became a repository of the most important things one could learn about László Lovász over the decades: as the years passed, more and more interviews were added, and the texts now put together enrich the reader’s picture of László Lovász with ever-new shades and nuances.

It was especially moving when the professor recalled efforts to create unity both within the International Mathematical Union and within the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. “Public sentiment can bring peace if the conflict itself is artificially created,” he said, expressing hope that the current situation (in 2026) would prove similar, and that the disputed issues would ultimately be resolved through sensible agreement.
He succeeded in keeping the IMU united and bridging the gap between research mathematicians and mathematics educators. And he managed to prevent the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from suffering the fate of the country’s two separate arts academies: “Our stand was meaningful, because there did not emerge a Hungarian Academy of Science ‘A’ and a separate Hungarian Academy of Science ‘B’. The research institute network remained united, and I believe that during this difficult period people actually grew closer to one another,” he recalled.

“Can a scientific academy function independently of politics at all?” asks Gyula Staar in the final interview. “Obviously not,” replies Lovász. “The Academy must acknowledge that politics does not operate solely on scientific grounds, while politics, in turn, must acknowledge that the Academy and the scientific community cannot say anything other than what science, on the basis of the available evidence and data, dictates at a given moment. (…) Politics may add other considerations and make decisions accordingly, but it should not expect science to justify such decisions.”
 

Professor Lovász speaks in several places about the position of mathematics today, its increasingly organic integration into modern life, and about his current workplace, the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics. Among these remarks, perhaps the most vivid are the following excerpts:
 

“Mathematics now has important, genuine, deep applications in more and more fields. Earlier this was characteristic mainly of physics, and to a lesser extent economics. Today serious mathematics is also used by chemists, parts of biology, meteorologists, and various social scientists.”

“At Rényi Institute I can work in a place that, in terms of my narrower field, belongs to the world’s leading edge.” The latter is especially uplifting coming from someone who has worked in places such as Princeton University, Yale University, California, and Microsoft

In a few months, Lovász’s current project will come to an end. Together with his collaborators, Albert-László Barabási and Prague-based Czech mathematician Jaroslav Nešetřil, he has been working on an ERC Synergy Grant project aimed at understanding the functioning of very large networks, mapping their dynamics, and creating adequate mathematical models for them. He is also working on unresolved questions in graph limit theory and on the study of properties of very dense graphs. In this latter research, he collaborates with his colleagues from Rényi Institute, Balázs Szegedy and Dávid Kunszenti-Kovács.

After reading the book, one may confidently say that it is a much-needed volume, offering insight into the everyday life, mindset, and ethics of a gentle, reserved person who approaches both his vocation and the institutions of science with humility, sensitivity, and responsibility. It is a rare gift for readers, whether they know him personally or not. With gratitude, curiosity, and joy, we await its continuation, i. e. the next collection if interviews in whatever form or medium it may come.
 

 
 Photos of the book launch: Szigeti Tamás/MTA