In recognition of his outstanding scientific achievements, the Presidium of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has awarded the Eötvös József Wreath to András Gyárfás, Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Professor Emeritus at HUN-REN Rényi Institute of Mathematics. The award recognises his internationally outstanding contributions to structural and chromatic graph theory over the past five decades, as well as his influential conjectures that have opened up new avenues of research.
András Gyárfás is an internationally renowned figure in Hungarian mathematical research, particularly in combinatorics and graph theory. His scientific work focuses primarily on finite graph theory, graph colouring and combinatorial problems. He has contributed to the formulation and further development of several combinatorial problems that remain active areas of research today.
András Gyárfás is an internationally recognised leading researcher and educator in discrete mathematics. His scientific achievements are of outstanding significance. He has published more than 200 papers, including 15 co-authored with Paul Erdős and 14 with Endre Szemerédi. “Through his beautiful theorems and problems, he has had an enormous impact on the development of graph theory over the past more than 50 years,” reads the official nomination, which pays tribute to the Professor Emeritus of the Graph Theory Research Department at Rényi Institute.
Two major conjectures associated with his name bear his name: the Erdős–Gyárfás conjecture, formulated jointly with Paul Erdős, and the Gyárfás–Sumner conjecture, formulated independently by Gyárfás and David Sumner. Both are important problems in graph theory and remain the subject of international research.
An interesting aspect of his research career is his professional relationship with Paul Erdős. He first met Erdős in 1962, while still a secondary school student, at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' holiday resort in Mátraháza. There, the young András Gyárfás lost several table tennis matches to the legendary mathematician, who consoled him by introducing him to the basics of graph theory. A close professional relationship subsequently developed between them, resulting in numerous joint publications. In 2013, Gyárfás looked back on his encounters with Erdős and their joint mathematical work in a personal account entitled Problems and Memories. The approximately 13-page retrospective offers insights not only into their scientific achievements but also into the ways mathematicians think and collaborate. The full text, in English, can be read HERE.
Those who nominated him for the award also highlight his contribution to teaching hundreds of students interested in combinatorics through the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics programme and as a visiting professor at the University of Memphis.
“His capacity for work is legendary. Despite being 80 years old, he is one of the most active members of Rényi Institute, collaborating with most members of the Combinatorics and Geometry Research Departments and having a profound influence on younger colleagues.”
His career spans more than five decades of research and publication, and he has collaborated with over 100 co-authors. He continued to publish new scientific papers in 2026.
