Paul Erdős was a Hungarian Jewish mathematician, born in Budapest in 1913. He studied at the University of Budapest from the age of 17 and was awarded his Ph. D in 1924 under the supervision of Prof Lipót Fejér, studying arithmetic progressions of prime number. Erdős was most prolific publishers of papers in mathematical history, well known for his extensive collaborations, writing papers with more than 500 co-authors. Made fundamental contributions to Ramsey theory, the probabilistic method, extremal combinatorics and analytic number theory, and significant contributions to many other fields ranging from analysis to topology.

In 1938 Erdős got a position in Princeton University, but was not tenured due to his unconventional conduct. In 1954 during the McCarthyism era, Erdős moved to Israel, first taking a temporary position in the Einstein Institute at the Hebrew University, and after three months obtaining a permanent visiting professorship at the Technion, while constantly traveling between universities and scholars throughout the world. In 1977 Erdős established the Anna and Lajos Erdős Prize in Mathematics given to an Israeli mathematician under 40, by the Israeli mathematical union to commemorate his parents.