page_title: Stefan Banach
section_title: Interbellum
hierarchical_section_title: Stefan Banach / Life / Interbellum
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Lwów. Budynek na Akademickiej, w którym przez II wojną mieściła się słynna Kawiarnia Szkocka. Wrzesień 2003. Autor: Stanisław Kosiedowski Українська: Дім на проспекті Шевченка, 27 у Львові. Збудований за проектом Збіґнєва Брохвіча-Левинського. Тут у 1909-1939 роках знаходилась відома Шотландська кав'ярня
context_page_description: Stefan Banach was a Polish mathematician who is generally considered one of the world's most important and influential 20th-century mathematicians. He was the founder of modern functional analysis, and an original member of the Lwów School of Mathematics. His major work was the 1932 book, Théorie des opérations linéaires, the first monograph on the general theory of functional analysis.
  Born in Kraków, Banach attended IV Gymnasium, a secondary school, and worked on mathematics problems with his friend Witold Wilkosz. After graduating in 1910, Banach moved to Lwów. However, during World War I Banach returned to Kraków, where he befriended Hugo Steinhaus. After Banach solved some mathematics problems which Steinhaus considered difficult, they published their first joint work. In 1919, with several other mathematicians, Banach formed a mathematical society. In 1920 he received an assistantship at the Lwów Polytechnic. He soon became a professor at the Polytechnic, and a member of the Polish Academy of Learning. He organized the "Lwów School of Mathematics". Around 1929 he began writing his Théorie des opérations linéaires.
context_section_description: Steinhaus introduced Banach to academic circles and substantially accelerated his career. After Poland regained independence in 1918, Banach was given an assistantship at the Lwów Polytechnic. Steinhaus' backing also allowed him to receive a doctorate without actually graduating from a university. The doctoral thesis, accepted by King John II Casimir University of Lwów in 1920  and published in 1922, included the basic ideas of functional analysis, which was soon to become an entirely new branch of mathematics. The thesis was widely discussed in academic circles and allowed him in 1922 to become a professor at the Lwów Polytechnic. Initially an assistant to Professor Antoni Łomnicki, in 1927 Banach received his own chair. In 1924 he was also accepted as a member of the Polish Academy of Learning. At the same time, from 1922, Banach also headed the second Chair of Mathematics at University of Lwów.
  Young and talented, Banach gathered around him a large group of mathematicians. The group, meeting in the Scottish Café, soon gave birth to the "Lwów School of Mathematics". In 1929 the group began publishing its own journal, Studia Mathematica, devoted primarily to Banach's field of study—functional analysis. Around that time, Banach also began working on his best-known work, the first monograph on the general theory of linear-metric space. First published in Polish in 1931, the following year it was also translated into French and gained wider recognition in European academic circles. The book was also the first in a long series of mathematics monographs edited by Banach and his circle. In 17 June 1924 Banach become a correspondence member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts in Kraków.
caption: Scottish Café, meeting place of many famous Lwów mathematicians
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