BUDAPEST: THE GOLDEN YEARS SYMPOSIUM
Held on the final day of the von Neumann commemorations at Princeton University, and with the same title and theme as the opening Memorial Lecture, the symposium/workshop “Budapest: The Golden Years” further explored the cultural richness of the European capital that produced this polymath and a startling number of other eminent intellectuals during a period of exceptional brilliance in the middle of the 20th century.
The symposium, which was supported by the Foundation, attempted to place von Neumann’s genius within the context of a culture that has been producing creative minds in numbers all out of proportion either to its population or the size of its economy.
Organizers of the workshop cite such iconic figures in the pantheon of Hungarian mathematics as Janos Bolyai, the 19th-century pioneer of non-Euclidean geometry, Paul Erdös—a prodigy who at the age of three could calculate how many seconds family friends had lived and who led a famously nomadic existence commuting from campus to campus, and George Pólya—famed for his work on problem-solving.
The workshop confronted such questions, in relation to the creativity of von Neumann and his contemporaries, as: What fertile soil produced this flowering of creativity? Where should we look for its roots? Can we identify the particular institutions, and their origins, which helped put the genius of von Neumann and similar high intellects at the service of humanity?
To address these issues intensively and authoritatively, the symposium assembled 12 mathematicians and social scientists, from Hungary and elsewhere, with experience in the transplanting of mathematical institutions. They discussed ways to frame these questions more accurately, how to investigate them, what resources might be needed for that purpose, and how to make use of the results. “The goal of the workshop,” proclaimed the organizers, “is for the world to learn from the Hungarian experience.”
The participants included Dr. Mark Saul, Templeton Foundation consultant for gifted education, as well as Tibor Frank, professor of history at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, and István Deák, Seth Low Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, both of whom had already contributed to the von Neumann Memorial Lecture on the previous day. Also among the participants was Marina von Neumann Whitman, professor of business administration and public policy at the University of Michigan and daughter of John von Neumann.

“Budpest: The Golden Years” Symposium Participants

George Berzsenyí Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Momar Dieng Department of Mathematics, University of Arizona Paul D. Humke Professor of Mathematics, St. Olaf College; Distinguished Visiting Professor of Mathematics, Washington and Lee University Elizabeth Iler Gateway Institute for Pre-College Education, City University of New York

Dezso Miklos Deputy Director, Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Monica Mitchell Associate, Quality Education for Minorities Network, Washington, DC Janos Pataki Department of Mathematics, Fazekas Mihaly High School, Budapest Jozsef Pelikan Professor, Department of Algebra and Number Theory, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest

Bruce M. Robinson Head of School, British School of Boston Mark Saul Consultant for Gifted Education, John Templeton Foundation Joel H. Spencer Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University Theresa M. H. Wise Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer, Northwest Airlines, Inc., alumna of Budapest Mathematical Seminars