Józef Marcinkiewicz (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjuzɛf mart͡ɕinˈkʲjɛvit͡ʂ]; 30 March 1910 in Cimoszka, near Białystok, Poland – 1940 in Kharkiv, USSR) was a Polish mathematician who worked at the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius. He is considered one of the most prominent Polish mathematicians of the Interwar period. Despite his short career, he made substantial contributions to real analysis, Fourier analysis, interpolation theory, orthogonal series, complex analysis, and probability theory. Concepts named after Marcinkiewicz include the Marcinkiewicz multiplier theorem, Marcinkiewicz interpolation theorem, and Marcinkiewicz–Zygmund inequality. Following the outbreak of World War II, Marcinkiewicz enlisted in the Polish Army and, in 1940, he fell victim to the Soviet-perpetrated Katyn massacre.
Life and career
Marcinkiewicz was born on 30 March 1910 in the small settlement of Cimoszka, then part of Congress Poland, 35 km north-west of Białystok, to Klemens and Aleksandra (née Chodakiewicz). He was one of five children, with one sister and three brothers. His family was of fairly comfortable means. Marcinkiewicz received partiotic upbringing and attended a gymnasium in Sokółka. He later transferred to King Sigismund Augustus State Gymnasium in Białystok, where he passed his Matura exam. Despite fragile health as a child, he was able to practice sports including swimming and skiing. His early education inspired him to develop a keen interest in mathematics and Polish literature. In 1930, Marcinkiewicz enrolled at the Stefan Batory University in Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania) and studied in the Department of Mathematical and Natural Sciences. His abilities were immediately noticed by his professors who considered him a standout talent in mathematics. During his time at the university, Marcinkiewicz conducted research on trigonometric series and Lebesgue integration. He began his close scientific collaboration and friendship with his professor Antoni Zygmund as a second-year student, which was seen as extraordinary. Zygmund observed that Marcinkiewicz's mathematical growth was "progressing at a very fast rate, and the richness and originality of new ideas in him was always a source of amazement" to him. He was also a very active student who participated in the Mathematics and Physics Club, becoming its president in 1932. In 1933, he graduated from the university. Two years later, Marcinkiewicz obtained his doctorate based on his thesis entitled Trigonometric interpolation of absolutely continuous functions written under the supervision of Zygmund. In 1935, he was awarded a Fund for National Culture scholarship, which made it possible for him to visit Lwów and work as an assistant at the Jan Kazimierz University (now University of Lviv), where he personally met Stefan Banach and Hugo Steinhaus, leading representatives of the Lwów School of Mathematics. During this period, he worked with Juliusz Schauder, Władysław Orlicz and Stefan Kaczmarz. His collaboration with the latter led to a series of publications on the topic of general orthogonal systems including Sur les multiplicateurs des séries orthogonales (1938). Marcinkiewicz visited the Scottish Café, a meeting place for renowned Leopolitan mathematicians, solving two problems and contributing one to the famous Scottish Book. Upon returning to Wilno, he was appointed a senior assistant and subsequently, in 1937, a docent, becoming the youngest person to hold this position at the university. The same year, he received the Józef Piłsudski Scientific Prize for his contributions to mathematics, and was awarded his habilitation on the basis of his work O sumowalności szeregów ortogonalnych (On the Summability of Orthogonal Series) published in Wiadomości matematyczne (Mathematical News) the following year. Alongside his academic career, Marcinkiewicz pursued a military one as well. In 1934, he completed the divisional reserve infantry officer cadet course. In 1935, 1936/1937 and again in 1938, he underwent training with the 1st Legions Infantry Regiment in Vilnius, serving as a platoon commander. In 1937, he reached the rank of second lieutenant. At the age of just 29, Marcinkiewicz received an offer of Chair of Mathematics at the Poznań University, with the position of extraordinary professor, which he accepted and was to have started teaching there in the 1939/1940 academic year. In the meantime, encouraged by his fruitful time in Lwów, he decided to submit another application for a scholarship from the National Culture Fund, which proved successful. In 1939, Marcinkiewicz travelled to Paris, where he conducted research with Stefan Bergman, and Raphaël Salem, and to London, where he spent five months at the University College London. While in London, as the political climate rapidly worsened, he resolved to return to his homeland despite efforts by his colleagues to convince him to stay. Years of military training and a sense of patriotic obligation motivated Marcinkiewicz to make this decision.
World War II and death
He enlisted in the Polish Army during the German invasion of Poland. In the aftermath of the simultaneous Soviet invasion of Poland, Marcinkiewicz was taken as a Polish POW to a Soviet camp in Starobielsk. The exact place and date of his death remain unknown, but it is believed that he died, when aged 30, murdered by the NKVD in Kharkiv between 5 April and 12 May 1940. His parents, to whom he gave his manuscripts before the beginning of World War II, were transported to the Soviet Union in 1940 and later died of hunger in a camp. Zygmund recounts the fate of Marcinkiewicz and his parents, writing about the last time he saw him and about Marcinkiewicz’s lost mathematical works as follows:
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