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Eastern Europe in general has a strong math & science culture. It operates on a lot of levels and is hard to summarize, but it predates the 50’s for sure.

paulpauper 3y ago
In America it's the opposite direction post-Apollo program . Outside of Silicon Valley at least.
lynguist 3y ago
How so? There were no Eulers in Eastern Europe except for Russia, which had a prestigious science academy. No Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, etc. had that.
- nomemory 3y ago
  Well, for Hungary, you have John von Neumann and Eugene Wigner, who both finished an Elite School in Budapest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasori_Gimn%C3%A1zium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasori_Gimn%C3%A1zium. And you also have Erdos. Of course, you might say they were Jewish, but they are the product of the Hungarian School of Mathematics.
  - rvba 3y ago
    Does Rubik count as well? Not a mathmatician, but everybody knows him for a reason.
- rvba 3y ago
  Ulam, Banach? Other people who made the atomic bomb? Often polish-jewish https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Polish_mathematicians https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Polish_mathematician... (on a side note, the table should be reworked with sortable dates and names - last name perhaps first but Im not sure how to do it)
- dan-robertson 3y ago
  There were no Eulers anywhere except Switzerland (later Russia), though I guess there was a Gauss in Germany, so I think that’s a slightly poor example. A pretty random list of polish mathematicians you may have heard of: - Copernicus - Marie Curie - Banach and Tarski I think it’s worth noting that the history of the modern borders and what happened inside them is more complicated than that of (say) Switzerland so, for example, someone may have come from what is now considered Poland but be seen as a Prussian or Russian scientist based on where the political entity that was around when they were working. I think it’s reasonable to say that the math & science culture goes back at least as far as when socialist-style education systems were being set up.

paulpauper 3y ago

In America it's the opposite direction post-Apollo program . Outside of Silicon Valley at least.

lynguist 3y ago

How so? There were no Eulers in Eastern Europe except for Russia, which had a prestigious science academy. No Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, etc. had that.

nomemory 3y ago
Well, for Hungary, you have John von Neumann and Eugene Wigner, who both finished an Elite School in Budapest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasori_Gimn%C3%A1zium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasori_Gimn%C3%A1zium. And you also have Erdos. Of course, you might say they were Jewish, but they are the product of the Hungarian School of Mathematics.
- rvba 3y ago
  Does Rubik count as well? Not a mathmatician, but everybody knows him for a reason.
rvba 3y ago
Ulam, Banach? Other people who made the atomic bomb? Often polish-jewish https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Polish_mathematicians https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Polish_mathematician... (on a side note, the table should be reworked with sortable dates and names - last name perhaps first but Im not sure how to do it)
dan-robertson 3y ago
There were no Eulers anywhere except Switzerland (later Russia), though I guess there was a Gauss in Germany, so I think that’s a slightly poor example. A pretty random list of polish mathematicians you may have heard of: - Copernicus - Marie Curie - Banach and Tarski I think it’s worth noting that the history of the modern borders and what happened inside them is more complicated than that of (say) Switzerland so, for example, someone may have come from what is now considered Poland but be seen as a Prussian or Russian scientist based on where the political entity that was around when they were working. I think it’s reasonable to say that the math & science culture goes back at least as far as when socialist-style education systems were being set up.