The Sydney Morning Herald published a lovely obituary of George and Esther Szekeres, Mathematicians, 1911-2005, 1910-2005. The picture above was from a conference to celebrate George Szekeres’ 90th birthday.
Here’s an excerpt – you really should go read the whole thing.
Esther and George were born in Budapest. They met at university, where George was studying chemical engineering so he could enter the family leather business and Esther was studying physics. She had exhibited outstanding ability in mathematics and physics from an early age but in 1927 it was difficult for girls to go to university, let alone study mathematics or physics.
As well, in Hungary there were severe restrictions on places for minority groups and only two places were open to the Jewish students from her school; her friend Marta Sved took the mathematics place and Esther the physics spot.
Oh my – they were friends of my mother, and my father-in-law. Mum used to teach the talented students with them.
And it’s almost making me cry again to read it.