The Hungarian Academy of Sciences will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2025. Among its members are many distinguished students and teachers who have left their mark not only on the Academy but also on the history of our institution. Lipót Fejér (1880-1959) mathematician, university professor was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 1930.
Lipót Fejér attended primary school in Pécs, and also finished his secondary studies in 1897 at a school focusing on science. Later he started to work for the Mathematical Journal for High Schools upon the initiative of Zsigmond Maksai. His special talents were manifested primarily in his solutions of geometrical problems. He was admitted to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the József University of Technology in 1897, however, next year he went over to the Budapest University where the lectures held by Manó Beke and Loránd Eötvös had the greatest influence upon him. In the academic year 1899/1900 he studied at the Berlin university. He had started to deal with the Fourier series as a student. This became the subject of his thesis and doctoral dissertation in mathematics. He started to teach at the Kolozsvár university in 1905, where he became a full professor very early, at the age of 31. In 1911 – upon the initiative of Loránd Eötvös – he was appointed to the department of mathematics of the Budapest University. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him as a corresponding member in 1908, and a full member in 1930. In 1933 he participated at a lecture tour in the United States of America where he visited 15 universities. Due to his Jewish background, he suffered a lot during the Nazi period and even his life was threatened. He died on 15 October 1959 in Budapest. His rich papers are kept in the archives of ELTE.