The Paul Erdős Professorship in Mathematics

The Paul Erdős Professorship in Mathematics is the most prestigious departmental faculty award on campus, designed to recognize and support tenure track faculty within the department who have made outstanding contributions in teaching, scholarship, service, community outreach, and engaged research at the University of Memphis. The award is named after the legendary mathematician Paul Erdős (26 March 1913 – 20 September 1996), a Hungarian mathematician who published more papers than any other mathematician in history. He worked on problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory and probability theory. He collaborated with many other mathematicians, including several at the University of Memphis: Bela Bollobás, Cecil Rousseau, Richard Schelp, and Ralph Faudree. Paul Erdős visited the University of Memphis frequently from the mid 1970s until his death, bringing distinction to the mathematics department at the University, and his influence continues to make its mark on the department.

The Paul Erdős Professorship is supported by a fund created and spearheaded by Ralph and Patricia Faudree, with the contribution of several other local, national, and international donors. Awards are given every three years and each award lasts for three years.

Paul Erdős Professors

Máté Wierdl
(2020-2023)

David Grynkiewicz
(2016-2019)

Paul Balister
(2013-2016)