János Bolyai Mathematical Society

The company promotes:

• mathematical scientific research,
• the increased adoption and widespread dissemination of the applications of mathematics,
• solving issues related to mathematics education and promoting mathematics.

The Bolyai Society discusses and socially promotes the solution of the issues of our mathematical life and, to this end, develops proposals for state bodies when necessary, and provides expert opinions upon their request. To achieve these goals and tasks, the Society provides an organized opportunity to present and popularize mathematical results, analyze theoretical issues of mathematics, and discuss current scientific and educational policy issues. It organizes congresses, colloquiums, pedagogical training, etc. (independently or together with other bodies) in the most actively developing chapters of modern mathematics and in various areas of education.

The Society searches for mathematical talents, promotes their further education, organizes academic and commemorative competitions, sets prizes and awards commemorative prizes. Participation in international mathematical student olympiads is the class lot of the best high school students. The Society's various awards serve to recognize the work of those who have achieved outstanding performance in various areas of education and mathematical research and applications.

The Society edits and publishes mathematical journals and colloquium publications, and supports the dissemination of specialized literature. The Society's journals are: ABACUS (jointly with the MATEGYE Foundation), Applied Mathematics Papers, Combinatorica, Secondary Mathematics and Physics Papers (jointly with the Eötvös Loránd Physics Society), Mathematics Papers, Periodica Mathematica Hungarica.

The Society's journals: Secondary School Mathematical Journals (KöMa) (since 1894), Mathematical Journals (since 1950), Periodica Mathematica Hungarica (since 1971), Combinatorica (since 1981)

The Society establishes and maintains scientific and pedagogical relations with similar associations and institutions in Hungary and abroad. The Bolyai János Mathematical Society is a member of the International Mathematical Union and the European Mathematical Society, and has a reciprocity agreement with the Mathematical Society of the United States of America.

An English-language book series (formerly published jointly with North Holland Publishing Co., currently with Springer Verlag) containing selected lectures from international events organized by the Society, which can be found in all major mathematical libraries around the world, and of which more than 70 members have been published so far.

A significant part of the BJMT's activities is the organization of various student competitions. The former Eötvös Competition has been running since 1949 under the name of the Kürschák József Competition, but now high school students can also participate.

The Minister of the Interior approved the statutes on August 21, 1891, and thus the Mathematical and Physical Society was able to hold its inaugural meeting on November 5, 1891, with the participation of 298 people. Loránd Eötvös was elected president, Gyula Kőnig from the mathematicians became vice president, and Gusztáv Rados became secretary.

After the death of Loránd Eötvös in 1919, the Society adopted the name Eötvös Loránd Mathematical and Physical Society (ELMFT) in 1921, and the student competitions also began to be referred to as the Eötvös Competition for short.

The reorganization took place in Szeged in such a way that on June 21, 1947, one of the legal successors of the ELMFT, the Bolyai János Mathematical Society (BJMT), was established.

In addition to the congresses covering the entire field of mathematical science, conferences covering a narrower subject area are regularly organized. The first of these is the conference organized in 1952 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of János Bolyai, whose participants included PS Alexandroff and E. Zech, among others. From 1953 onwards, the BJMT organized conferences on 3-4 topics per year, usually with a few dozen, predominantly foreign participants; the material from these conferences was often published in separate volumes (sometimes in several volumes). Nowadays, we do not organize joint events and conferences independently, mainly with the Alfréd Rényi Mathematical Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Eötvös Loránd University, the Széchenyi István University of Győr, and other partner associations - such as the Economic Modeling Society, the Hungarian Operations Research Society, and the Tamás Varga Students Memorial Foundation.
The aim of promoting and raising the standard of mathematics education is served by the travelling meetings held annually with a few hundred Hungarian participants, and then by the Tamás Varga Days, also held annually since 1990; the latter are also published in book form. The conference organized in 1963 with the support of UNESCO, which aimed to discuss the modernization of the mathematics curriculum, deserves special mention, and its impact is still felt today. The Youth Mathematics Circle, which brings together talented students, also served to support mathematics education.
An important part of the work of the BJMT is its participation in the editing and publishing of various mathematical publications. We have already mentioned the congress and conference volumes, and some publications that are more like textbooks have also been contributed to them. The BJMT also participates in the editing of several journals; in foreign languages, Periodica Mathematica Hungarica has been published since 1971, and Combinatorica since 1981. In Hungarian, Matematikai Lapok came into being in 1950 as a successor to the former Matematikai és Fizikai Lapok, and from that time on, the Középiskolai Matematikai Lapok was also edited by the BJMT, again expanded with a physics section from 1959. From 1997, both Alkalmazott Matematikai Lapok and ABACUS became association journals, and between 1953 and 1990, Matematika Tanítása was also one of them. A Panorama of Hungarian Mathematics in the Twentieth Century, an English-language overview of the work of Hungarian researchers in mathematics, was published by Springer, edited by János Horváth.

The organization of the Schweitzer Miklós Competition also began in 1949, in which university students can solve the set tasks (mostly 10) with several days of homework. A volume describing the material of this innovative competition in English was published in 1961, followed by a continuation in 1991. For younger students, the Society has organized the Arany Dániel Competition since 1949, and the Tamás Varga Competition between 1985 and 1999. The BJMT also organized the mathematical part of the National Academic Competition from 1951 to 1976. The BJMT also prepares students preparing for the International Mathematical Olympiad, and we also organized such competitions in 1961, 1970 and 1982. The Hungarian-Israeli Mathematics Competition was held alternately in Hungary and Israel from 1990 to 2010. The national competitions listed above are complemented by many local competitions organized by individual sections.
The BJMT awards several prizes annually to reward individuals who have made outstanding achievements in mathematical research and mathematics education. Since 1950, the most outstanding teachers have received the Beke Manó Prize. Since 1953, the Grünwald Géza Prize has been awarded to young mathematicians who have achieved significant results. Since 1970, the Szele Tibor Memorial Medal has been awarded to an outstanding researcher who also contributes significantly to the education of the scientific generation of Hungarian mathematics. Since 1973, the Rényi Kató Prize has been awarded to university students who have already achieved results in research. Young researchers who are successful in the application of mathematics can receive the Gyula Farkas Prize. We support the professional or didactic research of a beginning teacher annually with the Patai Prize. The BJMT also participates in the awarding of prizes established and maintained by other bodies (Ericsson Prize, Mr. Rátz Teacher Lifetime Achievement Award, etc.).

The Bolyai Society, which currently has more than 1200 members, carries out its activities by dividing it into the following three departments: mathematics applications, education and science departments. In parallel with the departments, committees operate to carry out constantly recurring tasks. The life of the society takes place in county and city branches and groups, covering the country.