Rado, Richard, 1906-

Rado (1906-1989). Mathematician. Born in Berlin, educated at the universities of Berlin and Göttingen, taking his D.Phil. degree at Berlin in 1933 for a thesis, entitled "Studien zur Kombinatorik," working under I. Schur. He was also influenced by E. Schmidt during this period. He married Luise Zadek in March 1933 and, as a consequence of Hitler's accession to power in Germany, the Rados, being Jewish, moved to England. Rado obtained a scholarship through the recommendation of F. A. Lindemann (Later Lord Cherwell) to study at Cambridge University. He entered Fitzwilliam House (later College) in 1933 and studied for a Ph.D. under G. H. Hardy (awarded 1935 for his thesis on "Linear Transformations of Sequences"). He stayed on at Cambridge with a temporary Lecturership until 1936. During this period, 1933-1936, Rado made contact with a number of influential resident mathematicians, who included in addition to Hardy, J. E. Littlewood, P. Hall and A. S. Besicovitch, and with fellow refugees such as B. H. Neumann and Hans Heilbronn. In 1934 he met for the first time the Hungarian mathematician P. Erdös with whom he was to have many productive collaborations over five decades. Rado was subsequently Assistant Lecturer and Lecturer in Mathematics, Sheffield University, 1936-1947, Reader in Mathematics, King's College London, 1947-1954, and Professor of Pure Mathematics, Reading University, 1954-1971. He was Visiting Professor at

the University of Waterloo, Ontario, 1971-1972. Rado's mathematical research was particularly distinguished for his pioneering work in many aspects of combinatorics including abstract independent structures, transversal theory and extensions of Ramsey's theorem (the partition calculus).