Harold Kuhn passes away


Pioneering mathematician Harold Kuhn has passed away this week. Kuhn was known for various contributions: Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions (for a solution in nonlinear programming to be optimal); Kuhn's theorem (that relates perfect recall, mixed and unmixed strategies and their expected payoffs); and the Hungarian method for computing the minimum cost perfect matching of a bipartite graph.

I recall attending Kuhn's plenary lecture at EURO 2010 in Lisbon where he gave a charming talk about the history of the Hungarian method and the recent discovery of how Carl Gustav Jacobi had already solved the assignment problem in the 19th century. Kuhn gave a detailed history of the other figures such as Dénes Konig and Jenó Egerváry who all played their part in the development of ideas related to the Hungarian Method.


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