Alexander Danilowitsch Alexandrov

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Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov ( Russian Александр Данилович Александров * July 22 jul. / 4. August  1912 greg. In Volyn region, Ryazan Governorate , Russian Empire (now Ryazan , Russia ); † 27. July 1999 in Moscow ) was a Soviet mathematician .

Live and act

Alexandrov was the son of a teacher couple in Saint Petersburg , where he grew up. From 1929 he studied physics (with Vladimir Fock among others ) and mathematics (with Boris Delone ) at the University of Leningrad . From 1930 he was at the State Optical Institute (GOI) and then at the Physics Institute of the university, where he graduated in theoretical physics in 1933. Also from 1933 he taught at the Institute for Mathematics and Mechanics at the University of Leningrad, in 1935 he received his doctorate and in 1937 he qualified as a doctor of Russia (Russian doctorate). From 1937 he was professor of geometry at the University of Leningrad and at the same time at the Leningrad branch of the Steklov Institute (LOMI, today PDMI). During the Second World War he was evacuated to Kazan with the Steklov Institute , but returned to Leningrad as a professor in 1944. From 1952 to 1964 he was rector of the Leningrad University and in 1959 he was responsible for the re-establishment of the Leningrad Mathematical Society (with Vladimir Smirnov ), which had been founded in 1890 but was closed for political reasons. From 1964 to 1986 he was at the University of Novosibirsk , where he was also head of the laboratory for geometry in the Mathematical Institute of the Siberian Academy of Sciences. From 1986 he was back in Leningrad, as head of the LOMI's geometry laboratory.

Alexandrow initially worked in theoretical physics under the influence of Fock (he also published work on quantum mechanics), but at the same time at an early stage on convex polyhedra and the geometry of crystals under the influence of Delone. He mainly worked on the differential geometry of surfaces. According to him, Alexandrov spaces named.

Alexandrow (second from left) with Werner Fenchel , Herbert Busemann , Børge Jessen 1954

Grigori Perelman is one of his doctoral students .

In 1942 he received the Stalin Prize (State Prize), in 1951 the Lobachevsky Medal and in 1991 the Leonhard Euler Gold Medal . From 1946 he was a corresponding and from 1964 full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences . Since 1975 he was a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei . Like his teacher Delone, he was a passionate mountaineer. In 1958 he gave a plenary lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Edinburgh (Modern Developments in Surface Theory).

On his gravestone it says: " Only the truth may be worshiped. "

He should not be confused with the Russian mathematician Pavel Alexandrov (who was also at the Steklov Institute).

Fonts

  • Selected Works, Vol. 1, Gordon and Breach 1996, Vol. 2, Chapman and Hall 2005
  • Convex Polyhedra, Springer 2005
  • with Boris Delone, Padurow: Mathematical foundations of the structural analysis of crystals 1934 (Russian)

Web links

References

  1. ↑ The Steklov Institute, at which Delone was also, and moved from Leningrad to Moscow in 1934. The Leningrad Department was opened in 1940
  2. ↑ Psychogram by Grigori Perelman in GEO 01 | 2012 p. 54
personal data
SURNAME Alexandrow, Alexander Danilowitsch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Soviet mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Wolyn
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 1999
Place of death Moscow