Throughout his life, Kurepa published over 700 articles, books, papers, and reviews[3] and over 1,000 scientific reviews. He lectured at universities across Europe, as well as those in Canada, Cuba, Iraq, Israel, and the United States, and was quoted saying "I lectured at almost each of [the] nineteen universities of [the former] Yugoslavia..."[1]
Early life
Born as Đurađ Kurepa in Majske Poljane, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary to a Serb[4] family. In English, his name was transliterated as Djuro Kurepa while in French he is often attributed as Georges Kurepa. Kurepa was the youngest of Rade and Anđelija Kurepa's fourteen children. His nephew was the mathematician Svetozar Kurepa.[5]
He began his schooling in Majske Poljane, continued his education in Glina, and graduated from high school in Križevci.[3] He received a diploma in theoretical mathematics and physics from the University of Zagreb in 1931, and began work as an assistant in the teaching of mathematics the same year. Kurepa then went to the Collège de France and the University of Paris, where he received his doctoral diploma in 1935; his advisor was French mathematician Maurice René Fréchet, and his thesis was titled Ensembles ordonnés et ramifiés.[3]
In 1965, Kurepa shifted to the University of Belgrade, where he focused on the mathematical fields of logic and set theory. Kurepa was a member of several organizations, including the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts[8] He was also the founder and president of the Society of Mathematicians and Physicists of Croatia, the founder and chief editor of the journal Mathematica Balkanica, and the president of the Yugoslav National Committee for Mathematics, the Balkan Mathematical Society, and the Union of Yugoslav Societies of Mathematicians, Physicisists and Astronomers. He received the AVNOJ Award in 1976, and retired from the University of Belgrade in 1977.[1]
As a mathematician, he is known especially for his works on set theory and general topology.[13]
Kurepa influenced set theory in several ways, including lending his name to the Kurepa tree. According to Kajetan Šeper, Kurepa's colleague from the University of Zagreb:
Professor Kurepa was not only the professional mathematician and teacher, but he was a scientist, philosopher, and humanist as well, in the true sense of these words. He was the founder and pioneer in mathematical logic and the foundations of mathematics in Croatia, and modern mathematical theories in Croatia and Yugoslavia. Generally speaking, he was the catalyzer, the initiator, and the bearer of mathematical science.
