Endre Szemerdi is an HungarianAmerican mathematician, working in the field of combinatorics and theoretical computer science. He has been the State of New Jersey Professor of computer science at Rutgers University since 1986. He also holds a professor emeritus status at the Alfrd Rnyi Institute of Mathematics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Szemerdi was born in Budapest. Since his parents wished him to become a doctor, Szemerdi enrolled at a college of medicine, but he dropped out after six months . He studied in Etvs Lornd University in Budapest and received his PhD from Moscow State University. His adviser was Israel Gelfand. This stemmed from a misspelling, as Szemerdi originally wanted to study with Alexander Gelfond.
Source: Wikipedia