1882-1969

Polish mathematician who produced 724 papers and 50 books on the subject of mathematics. At a time when the Russians were aiming their efforts at keeping the Poles illiterate and generally uninformed, Sierpinski entered the Department of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Warsaw, where he proved to be an outstanding student, winning the department's gold medal for a dissertation on Voronoy's contribution to number theory. Sierpinski received dozens of medals, awards, and honors from the Royal Societies of most of the European nations, and founded several publications, among them the Fundamenta Mathematicae, which is important to this day.