of the
Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, with his water quota, during the
siege of Jerusalem Michael Fekete was born in Zenta,
Austria-Hungary (today
Senta,
Serbia). He received his
PhD in 1909 from the
University of Budapest (later renamed Eötvös Loránd University). He studied under
Lipót Fejér. After completing his PhD he switched to
University of Göttingen, which was considered a mathematics hub. In 1914, he returned to the University of Budapest, where he attained the title of
Privatdozent. Fekete also worked as a private math tutor. Among his students was
János Neumann. In 1922, Fekete published a paper together with Neumann on extremal polynomials, which was Neumann's first
scientific paper. Fekete dedicated the majority of his scientific work to the
transfinite diameter. In 1928 Fekete immigrated to
Mandate Palestine and was among the first instructors of the Institute of Mathematics at the
Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. In 1929 he was promoted to
professor, and eventually headed the institute, succeeding
Edmund Landau and
Adolf Abraham Halevi Fraenkel. He later became the
dean of
Natural Sciences, and between the years 1946–1948 he was
Hebrew University Provost. Among his students were
Aryeh Dvoretzky and
Michael Bahir Maschler. == Awards and recognition==