Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 December 2014
Paul Erdős (26 March 1913—20 September 1996) was a mathematician par excellence whose results and initiatives have had a large impact and made a strong imprint on the doing of and thinking about mathematics. A mathematician of alacrity, detail, and collaboration, Erdős in his six decades of work moved and thought quickly, entertained increasingly many parameters, and wrote over 1500 articles, the majority with others. His modus operandi was to drive mathematics through cycles of problem, proof, and conjecture, ceaselessly progressing and ever reaching, and his modus vivendi was to be itinerant in the world, stimulating and interacting about mathematics at every port and capital.