As Babai told me,
I still had the task of shouting into America's ears, ’ÄúHere we are, it's great stuff.’Äù
The ’Äúgreat stuff’Äù was not
clear to the average American, but it was generally known to mathematicians.
1 Hungary had (and has!) a
unique mathematical culture which intimately combines excellence in research
with excellence in teaching.
2. Budapest, traditionally a
bridge between East and West, is a beautiful and fascinating city. Moreover,
(and because of Communism) Budapest was safe.
But from the perspective of
recruiting mathematics undergraduates to Hungary, the key, but hardly secret,
ingredient was Paul Erdos. Erdos was not merely respected by those who knew
him, he was loved. And because he was Erdos, nearly everyone knew him! As Babai
put it in the very first BSM literature,
students would be studying in the Country of Paul Erdos.
Babai needed help and he knew it. Without a
penny of funding he had to rely on volunteers and he found them in the
collaborators of Erdos, and those who had worked with Erdos collaborators.
Indeed, most of those active in the early organization of BSM fell into one of those two categories.3
Regional Representatives were recruited and asked to aid the recruiting
efforts. Meanwhile Babai asked several leading American mathematicians to lend
their names to the Program and compiled an impressive North American
Advisory Board for the opening page
of the first brochure. One of these early advisors was Joel Spencer who
suggested that a North American Director4 was needed to communicate with students and
coordinate BSM activities in North
America. He also had someone in mind, `Tom Trotter, ’Äúthe perfect American,’Äù
extremely efficient and well organized'. Trotter agreed to serve and
immediately went to work establishing the North American headquarters at the
University of South Carolina, designing application materials and recruiting
students. Ads were placed in the Notices and Focus and mailings
were sent to students and individual mathematicians who might have interest in
the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics Program.
In September, Babai moved to Chicago and
there was nothing to do but wait. In late October there was still no word about
student numbers, but by the deadline of November 15, fourteen qualified
applicants had been accepted. That was just enough for the Program to break
even and the first Budapest Semester
began that spring, 1985.
With Trotter leading the North American
operation, the program survived the first precarious few years. In time,
Trotter moved to Arizona and when his position as Department Head conflicted
with the time necessary to direct the North American side of BSM , he asked Babai to find a replacement volunteer. It
was at that point that I replaced Tom as North American Director, Bonnie Humke became Program Administrator and that St. Olaf College became the North American
headquarters serving as Agent College for the Program. Laci Babai continues as
the Program Coordinator, while
Gyuri Petruska now served as Hungarian Director. The Program has continued its cooperation with the
Technical University-Budapest, but now through the new College International.
Gradually the program increased [from 20-30 students
per semester] to its current size of about [55-65] students each semester. At
latest count, more than 170 colleges and universities have sent students to the
program, many of them several times. These institutions range from great small
colleges like Smith, Macalester, Carleton5
and Pomona to much larger universities such as Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton and
the University of Michigan.