Félix Pollaczek (1 December 1892 in Vienna – 29 April 1981 at Boulogne-Billancourt) was an Austrian-French^[2] engineer and mathematician, known for numerous contributions to number theory, mathematical analysis, mathematical physics and probability theory. He is best known for the Pollaczek–Khinchine formula in queueing theory (1930), and the Meixner-Pollaczek polynomials.

Pollaczek studied at the Technical University of Vienna, got a M.Sc. in electrical engineering from Technical University of Brno (1920), and his Ph.D. in mathematics from University of Berlin (1922) with a dissertation titled Über die Kreiskörper der l-ten und l²-ten Einheitswurzeln, advised by Issai Schur and based on results published first in 1917.^[3][4]

Pollaczek was employed by AEG in Berlin (1921–23), worked for Reichspost (1923–33). In 1933, he was fired because he was Jewish.^[2] He moved to Paris, where he was consulting teletraffic engineer to various institutions from 1933 onwards, including the Société d'Études pour Liaisons Téléphoniques et Télégraphiques (SELT) and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).^[1]

In 1977, Pollaczek was awarded the John von Neumann Theory Prize, although his age prevented him from receiving the prize in person. He was posthumously elected to the 2002 class of Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.^[5]

He married mathematician Hilda Geiringer in 1921, and they had a child, Magda, in 1922.^[6] However, their marriage did not last, and Magda was brought up by Hilda. Pollaczek became physicist László Tisza's father-in-law due to Magda's marriage.