Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky

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Petrovsky's grave in the Novodevichy Cemetery

Ivan Petrovsky ( Russian Иван Георгиевич Петровский ; born January 5 . Jul / 18th January  1901 greg. In Sevsk in the Bryansk region, † 15. January 1973 in Moscow ) was a Soviet mathematician who u up. a. dealt with partial and ordinary differential equations , probability theory and topology of real algebraic curves and surfaces.

Life

Petrowski studied at the Sevsk Polytechnic (diploma in 1917) and at the Lomonossow University in Moscow (graduated in 1927). From 1930 he was there as a lecturer and from 1933 as a professor. From 1951 to 1973 he was rector of the university, a task that he took very seriously and placed above his mathematical work. According to Pavel Alexandrov's obituary , only Lobachevsky among the rectors of Soviet universities could match him in this respect. The university was expanded considerably under his rectorate. He orientated himself strictly according to scientific achievement and tried to counteract political pressure in the selection. From 1943 he also taught at the Steklow Institute , whose vice director he became.

Petrowski wrote some textbooks widely used in the Soviet Union. His main area of ​​work was partial differential equations and their applications. For example he dealt with the boundary value problems of the heat conduction equation and applied methods of algebraic geometry to systems of partial differential equations. He dealt, partly with his student Olga Oleinik , with the theory of real algebraic varieties and made progress with the associated 16th Hilbert problem . He also made progress with the 19th Hilbert problem (analyticity of the solutions to problems of variation).

He had been a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences since 1946 and " Hero of Socialist Labor " in 1969. In 1966 he was President of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Moscow.

Petrowski had a library of over 30,000 volumes and encyclopedic knowledge. His students include Olga Ladyschenskaya , Olga Oleinik .

Fonts

  • Selected Works, 2 volumes, Gordon and Breach, 1996
  • Lectures on Partial Differential Equations, Teubner 1955 (English: Lectures on Partial Differential Equations, Interscience 1957)
  • Lectures on the theory of ordinary differential equations, Teubner 1954
  • Lectures on the theory of integral equations, Würzburg, Physica Verlag 1953
  • Partial Differential Equations, London 1967

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Petrowski, Ivan Georgievich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Soviet mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Sevsk
DATE OF DEATH 15th January 1973
Place of death Moscow