Stefan Banach: Google Doodle celebrates Polish mathematician

The Google Doodle is celebrating the life and legacy of Polish mathematician Stefan Banach.

Stefan Banach was an original member of the Lwów School of Mathematics and one of the most influential 20th century mathematicians.

Here’s everything you need to know about Banach.

Who is Stefan Banach and why is he today’s Google?

Today’s Doodle celebrates an original member of the Lwów School of Mathematics and founder of modern functional analysis —Stefan Banach.

Banach was an original member of the Lwów School of Mathematics and founder of modern functional analysis.

Stefan Banach was born in Kraków, Poland – and was always interested in solving puzzles with his friend Witold Wiłkosz, who also went on to become a famous mathematician.

Due to his poor eyesight, Banach was deemed unfit for military service and taught in local schools during World War 1.

After meeting Hugo Steinhaus, one of the most celebrated mathematicians of the time, the pair began working together and in April 1919 officially founded a society together that became the Polish Mathematical Society.

With the help of Steinhaus and other acadmics, Banach founded modern functional analysis, an entirely new branch of mathematics. Many concepts in the field are named after him such as Banach spaces, Banach algebra and the Banach-Steinhaus theorem.

Functional analysis is a branch of mathematics, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure.

He made major contributions to the theory of topological vector spaces, measure theory, integration, the theory of sets, orthogonal series and functional analysis, which is still studied and used today.

Today’s Doodle celebrates an original member of the Lwów School of Mathematics and founder of modern functional analysis —Stefan Banach.