Tarski the Great
Over time, Tarski laid claim to a great deal of territory in the world of logic, mathematics, and philosophy, especially in the areas of set theory, model theory, semantics of formal languages, decision procedures, universal algebra, geometry, and algebras of logic and topology. Between the late 1940s and 1980 he created a mecca in Berkeley to which the logicians of the world made pilgrimage, but he had to push and keep pushing for position, priority, and recognition. For better or worse, it became a habit that he continued long past the point of necessity — or at least so it seemed to others. Even one of his greatest admirers, the philosopher John Corcoran, said: “He was such a glory hound, it was embarrassing. He once confided to me that he considered himself ‘the greatest living sane logician’,” thus not so subtly avoiding the problem of comparison with Kurt Gödel.