mathematics

Steven Vajda

Steven Vajda is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Steven Vajda rather than just read about it. In short: Steven Vajda (20 August 1901 – 10 December 1995) was a Hungarian-British mathematician who contributed to the development of mathematical programming and operational research. He was a member of a circle of researchers that included George Dantzig, Abraham Charnes, W.W.

Key takeaways

Steven Vajda belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Steven Vajda to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Steven Vajda from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Steven Vajda (20 August 1901 – 10 December 1995) was a Hungarian-British mathematician who contributed to the development of mathematical programming and operational research. He was a member of a circle of researchers that included George Dantzig, Abraham Charnes, W.W. Cooper, William Orchard-Hays, Martin Beale and others. He worked and taught as an actuary and as a mathematician in operational research from 1925 to 1995. From 1939 until his death in 1995, he lived in the U.K. where he was a defence scientist with the Royal Naval Scientific Service, and a professor at Birmingham and Sussex Universities. He was a Companion of the Operational Research Society, a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and a member of the Mathematical Association. He is the author or coauthor of at least a dozen books on mathematical programming, game theory, manpower planning and statistics and of many journal publications and conference papers.

Early life Steven (originally István) Vajda was born in Budapest in 1901, to Josef and Aurelia Wollak. His family moved to Vienna in 1903, and it was in this city that Steven was raised and educated. He read mathematics and received a Dr. Phil. Degree in 1925 from the University of Vienna. One of his first appointments was in Romania where he was an actuarial advisor to the Romanian government. He eventually returned to Vienna to continue his work as an actuary and was married there in 1929. In 1939, Steven, wife Eva and their two children, Hedy and Robert, fled the Nazi regime that had taken over Austria in the 1938 Anschluss. The children were sent to Sweden and Eva was admitted to the UK as a domestic servant. Steven’s friend Karl Popper had already left Austria and, as a New Zealand resident and lecturer in philosophy at Canterbury University College, he found Steven a job and helped him to obtain the necessary travel documents. Steven was then able to enter England because he was merely in transit. The plan was to reunite the family in England and then leave for New Zealand, but before that could happen, the Second World War started and the Vajdas were briefly interned as "enemy aliens". They were housed in a camp on the Isle of Man with other refugees from across Europe. The internees organized a school for their children and, of course, Steven taught mathematics. Most of the internees were released after several months and Steven found employment as an actuary.

Career in the United Kingdom Meanwhile, mathematicians were in demand to staff the newly formed military operational research groups. H. Seal who was with the Admiralty O.R. group, had read Steven’s research publications in the Bulletin des actuaires suisses, and when he found that Steven was in England he sought him out and proposed that he join the war effort. After much bureaucratic manoeuvring, Steven joined the Royal Naval Scientific Service of the British Admiralty. When the war ended, Seal saw to it that Steven was one of the first "aliens" to be given British citizenship. Steven stayed with the Admiralty until 1964, holding such appointments as Assistant Director of Operational Research and Head of the Mathematical Group. In 1964, he "retired" for the first time. In 1964, Steven became Professor of Operational Research at the University of Birmingham. Upon his second "retirement" in 1967 he continued at Birmingham in a research appointment in mathematical statistics, working with Henry Daniels, David Wishart and Vic Barnett. He stayed until 1973, when, at the behest of Professor Pat Rivett, he once again "retired" in order to become Visiting Professor of Mathematics at Sussex University. He remained an active member of the Sussex staff until he died in 1995 in Brighton, two years after the birth of his first great grandchild Alexandra Eva (named after his wife).

Works Theory of Games and Linear Programming (1956) Readings in Linear Programming (1958) Introduction to Linear Programming and the Theory of Games (1960) Mathematical Programming (1961) Mathematics of Experimental Design (1970) Probabilistic Programming (1972) Theory of Linear and Nonlinear Programming (1974) Mathematics of Manpower Planning (1978) Handbook of Applicable Mathematics: Supplement (1990), co-authored with Walter Ledermann, Emlyn Lloyd and Carol Alexander Mathematical Games and How to Play Them (1992) A Mathematical Kaleidoscope: Applications in Industry, Business and Science (1995), co-authored with by Brian Conolly Fibonacci and Lucas Numbers, and the Golden Section: Theory and Applications (2008)

References

Additional sources Bather, John (1 January 1996). "Obituaries : Stefan Vajda". The Independent. Haley K.B. and Williams H.P; The work of Professor Steven Vajda 1901–1995; Journal of the Operational Research Society, Volume 49, Number 3, 1 March 1998, p. 298-301; Shutler, M.; Editorial: The life of Steven Vajda; IMA; J Management Math.1997; 8: 193-194; [1] Author’s biography appearing in Mathematical Programming (by Steven Vajda), Addison-Wesley, 1961 Biography of Steven Vajda from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Steven Vajda

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Steven Vajda claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Steven Vajda before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Steven Vajda ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Steven Vajda

In research: Steven Vajda appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Steven Vajda in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Steven Vajda is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1901 births, 1995 deaths, Academics of the University of Sussex, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Steven Vajda outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Steven Vajda in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Steven Vajda means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Steven Vajda out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Steven Vajda in simple terms?

Why does Steven Vajda matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Steven Vajda?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Steven Vajda.