Waclaw Sierpinski, born March 14, 1882, in
Warsaw,
Poland.
His abilities in mathematics surfaced early, and only 3 years
after entering the
University of Warsaw in 1900, he
won a prize for his essay on
Voronoi's contribution
to
number theory, and shortly thereafter he won a
gold medal
in a
number theory competition.
From 1908 to 1914 he lectured at the University of Lvov, followed
by three years at the University of Moscow. After the end of World War I
he returned to the University of Warsaw and spent the rest of his career
there. During his career he
received honorary doctorates from ten universities, was elected
vice-president of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and was awarded the
scientific prize of the first degree in 1949.
The majority of Sierpinski's work were on the subjects of number theory,
set theory and point set theory, as well as studies
of the "Sierpinski curve".
Sierpinski published an incredible 724 papers and 50 books during
his active years, and even after retiring as a professor in 1960, he
continued to give seminars up to 1967.
Sierpinski died in Warsaw on May 14, 1969.
Along with the Sierpinski curve, he is widely known for the
fractal classic, the Sierpinski triangle.