Stanislaw Ulam - Poland

Poland

Ulam was born in Lemberg, Galicia, on April 13, 1909. At this time, Galicia was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but in 1918, it became part of the Second Polish Republic, and the city took its Polish name, Lwów. In 1939, following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviets invaded Poland. After the city was annexed to Soviet Ukraine, the Ukrainan form of its name, Lviv, was adopted.

The Ulams were a wealthy Polish Jewish family of bankers, industrialists, and other professionals. Ulam's immediate family was "well-to-do but hardly rich". His father, Józef Ulam, was born in Lwów and was a lawyer, and his mother, Anna (Auerbach), was born in Stryj. His uncle, Michael Ulam, was an architect, building contractor, and lumber industrialist. He also served on the Polish National Wood Industry Council and on the board of the Central Bank of Lwów. From 1916 until 1918, Józef's family lived temporarily in Vienna. After they returned, Lwów became the epicenter of the Polish–Ukrainian War, during which the city experienced a Ukrainian siege and a pogrom.

In 1919, Ulam entered Lwów Gymnasium Nr. VII, from which he graduated in 1927. Soon, he began studies of mathematics at the Lwów Polytechnic Institute. Here, under the supervision of Kazimierz Kuratowski, he received his M. A. degree in 1932 and his D.Sc. in 1933. From 1931 until 1935, he traveled to and studied in Wilno, Vienna, Zurich, Paris, and Cambridge, England.

Along with Stanisław Mazur, Mark Kac, Włodzimierz Stożek, Kuratowski, and others, Ulam was a member of the Lwów School of Mathematics. Its founders were Hugo Steinhaus and Stefan Banach, who were professors at the University of Lwów. Mathematicians of this "school" met for long hours at the Scottish Café, where the problems they discussed were collected in the famous Scottish Book, which is a thick notebook provided by Banach's wife. Ulam is a major presence in the Scottish Book. Of the 193 problems recorded between 1935 and 1941, he contributed 40 problems as a single author, another 11 with Banach and Mazur, and an additional 15 with others. In 1957, he received from Steinhaus a copy of the book, which had survived the war, and translated it into English. In 1981, Ulam's friend Daniel Maudlin published an expanded and annotated version.