And David Cameron on Friday announced a new set of prizes for solutions to "some of society's most pressing problems".
(Erdös, who died in 1996, was known for offering cash prizes for solutions of problems he posed. Szemerédi earned $1000 for solving this one).
At that time it was treated as a recreational puzzle, papers printed graphs and prized best solution sent by readers.
Building on this awareness, the Nile Project is developing educational programs, an online dialogue platform, and a Nile Prize to incubate solutions to the region's cultural and environmental challenges.
So, what is the problem to which this new prize is the solution?
Almost 200 design teams from 53 countries were willing to wrestle with the question, partly because the institute offered a $10,000 prize for the solution it judged best and partly because it is now chic among architects to bring beauty and better logistics to utilitarian spaces like Queens Plaza, where tens of thousands of people and machines move daily through a transit choke point.
Boris Alexeev of Athens, Georgia, took second prize, for his solution that minimized the complexity of a kind of ideal computer.
We'll also be announcing on Monday a bunch of prizes from M2 Solutions, so be sure to check back then for further details.
But that's not the point: he'd have garnered just as much affection and respect with a fraction of that output, given the extraordinary quality and range of his work, his highly effective mentoring of young talent, and his legendary monetary prizes offered for solutions to challenging problems, which were often tantalizingly easy to state but difficult to tackle.
The prize might be a solution that will last.
