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Article: Banach, Stefan
- Article from:
- Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography
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Banach, Stefan
(
b
. Krakow, Poland, 30 March 1892;
d
, Lvov, Ukrainian S.S.R., 31 August 1945)
Mathematics.
Banach
’
s father, a railway official, and mother turned their son over to a laundress, who became his foster mother and gave him her surname. From the age of fifteen he supported himself by giving private lessons. After graduating from secondary school in Krakow in 1910, Banach studied at the Institute of Technology in Lvov but did not graduate. He returned to Krakow in 1914, and from 1916, when he met H. Steinhaus, he devoted himself to mathematics. His knowledge of the field was already fairly extensive, although it probably was not very systematic. Banach
’
s first ...