Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov ' onMouseout='HidePop("18646")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Transliteration">transliteration
Transliteration is the practice of converting a text from one writing system into another in a systematic way.-Definitions:From an information-theoretical point of view, transliteration is a mapping from one system of writing into another, word by word, or ideally letter by letter...
s:
Alexandr or
Alexander (first name), and
Alexandrov (last name)) (August 4, 1912–July 27, 1999), was a
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
/
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n
mathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with particular problems related to logic, space, transformations, numbers and more general ideas which encompass these concepts...
,
physicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
, philosopher and
mountaineerMountaineering is the sport, hobby or profession of walking, hiking, backpacking and climbing mountains. In Europe it is also referred to as alpinism, while in the Americas the term refers to a particular style of mountain climbing, that involves a mixture of ice climbing, rock climbing, mixed...
.
Scientific career
Aleksandrov graduated from the Department of Physics of
Leningrad State UniversitySaint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest, largest and most prestigious universities in the country. It is made up of 19 specialized faculties, 13 research institutes, Canada College, Faculty of...
. His
advisor-Finances:*Commodity trading advisor, any person who engages in the business of advising others*Financial advisor, also known as a financial planner, a practicing professional who helps people to deal with various personal financial issues through proper planning...
s there
were Vladimir Fok, a physicist, and
Boris DelaunayBoris Nikolaevich Delaunay or Delone was one of the first Russian mountain climbers and a Soviet/Russian mathematician, and the father of physicist Nikolai Borisovich Delone....
, a mathematician. In 1933 Aleksandrov worked at the State Optical Institute (GOI) and at the same time gave
lecturethumb|A lecture on [[linear algebra]] at the [[Helsinki University of Technology]]A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history,...
s at the Department of Mathematics and Mechanics of the University. He completed his
Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated PhD , for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", or alternatively, DPhil, for the equivalent , is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities...
in 1935 at the University and later in 1937 — a D.Sc. dissertation. He became a
professorThe meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual...
at the University, while also working at
LOMILomi or Pancit Lomi is a Chinese-Filipino dish made with a variety of thick fresh egg noodles of about a quarter of an inch in diameter. Because of its popularity at least in the eastern part of Batangas, there are as many styles of cooking lomi as there are eateries, panciterias or restaurants...
, the Leningrad Department of the Steklov Mathematical Institute (now PDMI, Petersburg Department of the Mathematical Institute). Appointed the
rectorThe word rector has a number of different meanings; they indicate an academic, religious or political administrator...
of the university in 1952, Aleksandrov remained in this position until 1964. In 1946 he became a corresponding member, and in 1964 — a
full memberThe title Academician denotes a Full Member of an art, literary, or scientific academy.In many countries it is a honorary title."Academician" may also be a functional title and denote a full member of the National Academy of Sciences in those countries where the academy has a strong influence on...
of the
USSR Academy of SciencesThe Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals.Headquartered in Moscow, the Academy is...
. Since 1975 he was also a member of the Italian National Academy.
Aleksandr Aleksandrov should not be confused with Pavel Alexandrov, another mathematician at the Steklov Institute.
Since 1964 and until 1986 Aleksandrov lived in
NovosibirskNovosibirsk is Russia's third-largest city, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia. It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...
, heading the Laboratory of
GeometryGeometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers....
of the Institute of Mathematics of the
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
n Division of the USSR Academy of Sciences, teaching at
Novosibirsk State UniversityNovosibirsk State University was founded in May 1959 in the USSR by Soviet academicians Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentiev, Sergei Lvovich Sobolev and Sergey Alekseyevich Khristianovich in a program of establishing a Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences...
. In 1986 he returned to Leningrad (now
Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
), to head the geometry laboratory at LOMI.
Awards
Partial list of the awards,
medalA Medal is usually a coin-like sculpted object of metal or other material that has been die-struck with an insignia, portrait or other artistic rendering. A medal may be awarded to a person or organization as a form of recognition for athletic, military, scientific, academic or some other kind of...
s, and prizes of Aleksandrov:
- USSR State Prize
The USSR State Prize was the Soviet Union's state honour. It was established on September 9 1966. After the breakup of the Soviet Union the prize was followed up by the State Prize of the Russian Federation....
(Stalin Prize, Stalinskaya Premiya) (1942)
- Lobachevsky International Prize
Lobachevsky Medal is a medal awarded by Kazan State University in honor of Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, who was a professor there. The medal was established in 1896 and first awarded in 1897...
(1951)
- Euler Gold Medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals.Headquartered in Moscow, the Academy is...
(1992)
One of many
orderAn order is a decoration, awarded by a government, a dynastic house, or a religious body to an individual, usually for distinguished service to a nation or to humanity.Modern orders and decorations can trace its origin back to the medieval Orders of Chivalry...
s that he was awarded was given to him in 1990 for his active defense of
geneticsGenetics, , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding...
during the period when it was declared a
pseudosciencePseudoscience is a methodology, belief, or practice that is claimed to be scientific, or that is made to appear to be scientific, but which does not adhere to an appropriate scientific methodology, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
in the
Soviet unionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
and fought against (see
LysenkoismLysenkoism was a set of repressive political and social campaigns in science and agriculture by the powerful Stalinist director of the Soviet Lenin All-Union Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Trofim Denisovich Lysenko and his followers, which began in the late 1920s and formally ended in...
).
Works by Aleksandrov
Aleksandrov wrote a multitude of books, scientific papers,
textbookA textbook is a manual of instruction or a standard book in any branch of study. They are produced according to the demand of educational institutions...
s for various levels (schools to universities). He also wrote non-mathematical papers,
memoirAs a literary genre, a memoir , forms a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable in modern parlance. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir, as listed here...
s about famous scientists, and philosophical
essayAn essay is usually a short piece of writing. It is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can be literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author....
s dealing with the moral values of science.
A full bibliography is available in
[1]. Selected works are available in English:
- Alexandrov, A.D. Selected works. Part 1: Selected scientific papers. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach Publishers. x, 322 p. (1996). ISBN 2-88124-984-1
- Alexandrov, A.D. Selected works. Intrinsic geometry of convex surfaces. Vol. 2. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall/CRC. xiii, 426 p. (2005). ISBN 0-415-29802-4
- Alexandrov, A.D. Convex polyhedra. Springer: Berlin. xi, 539 p. (2005). ISBN 3-540-23158-7
Students of Aleksandrov
- I. Liberman, S. Olovianishnikoff, P. Kostelyanetz — all the three of them died on the battlefields of the Great patriotic war
- A. Pogorelov
Aleksei Vasil'evich Pogorelov , was a Soviet/Ukrainian mathematician of Russian ethnicity. He was most famous for his contributions to convex and differential geometry...
— from Kharkov
- A. Yusupov — from Bukhara
Bukhara , also transliterated Bukhoro and Bokhara, from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 237,900...
- Students from the Aleksandrov Leningrad period (ordered by the time of joining the seminar
Seminar is, generally, a form of academic instruction, either at a university or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some particular subject, in which everyone present is requested...
s): Yu. Borisov, V. ZalgallerVictor Abramovich Zalgaller is a mathematician in the fields of geometry and optimization. He is best known for his results on convex polyhedra, linear and dynamic programming, isoperimetry, and differential geometry.Zalgaller did his early work under direction of A.D. Alexandrov and Leonid...
, Yu. Reshetnyak, I. Bakelman, Yu. Volkov, A. Zamorzaev, S. Bogacheva (who later married Aleksandrov), Yu. Borovskii, R. Pimenov
- Sobchuk and Starokhozyayev — from Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
- G. Rusiyeshvili — from Georgia (country)
Georgia Georgia Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Situated at the juncture of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the east by Azerbaijan...
- B. Frank and H. Frank — from Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
- Yu. Burago
Yuri Dmitrievich Burago is a Russian mathematician. He works in differential and convex geometry.- Education & career :Burago studied at Leningrad University, where he obtained his Ph.D and Habilitation degrees. His advisors were Victor Zalgaller and A.D...
, V. Kreinovich; Grigori PerelmanGrigori Yakovlevich Perelman , born 13 June 1966 in Leningrad, USSR , sometimes known as Grisha Perelman, is a Russian mathematician who has made landmark contributions to Riemannian geometry and geometric topology. In particular, he proved Thurston's geometrization conjecture...
- Moved from Alma-Ata after Aleksandrov's lecture tour there: M. Kvachko, V. Ovchinnikova, E. Sen'kin
- Stayed in Alma-Ata: A. Zilberberg, V. Strel'cov, D. Yusupov
- Novosibirsk students: A. Guc, A. Kuz'minykh, A. Levichev, A. Shaydenko
Both in St. Petersburg and in Novosobirsk Aleksandrov was doing joint research also with some of his students' students. Several of them became his co-authors: V. Berestovskii, A. Verner, V. Gol'dshtein, S. Krushkal', S. Kutateladze, N. Necvetaev, I. Nikolaev, V. Ryzhik.
His last Ph.D. student was
Grigori PerelmanGrigori Yakovlevich Perelman , born 13 June 1966 in Leningrad, USSR , sometimes known as Grisha Perelman, is a Russian mathematician who has made landmark contributions to Riemannian geometry and geometric topology. In particular, he proved Thurston's geometrization conjecture...
, who in 2002 made a breakthrough in the proof of Thurston's geometrization conjecture, which contains the
Poincaré conjectureIn mathematics, the Poincaré conjecture is a theorem about the characterization of the three-dimensional sphere among three-dimensional manifolds. It began as a popular, important conjecture, but is now considered a theorem to the satisfaction of the awarders of the Fields medal...
as a special case.
Mountaineering
Aleksandrov became attracted to alpinism under the influence of his advisor
Boris DelaunayBoris Nikolaevich Delaunay or Delone was one of the first Russian mountain climbers and a Soviet/Russian mathematician, and the father of physicist Nikolai Borisovich Delone....
. In the summer of 1937, after defending his D.Sc.,
- …together with I. Chashnikov he makes a first climb to the Chotchi summit, and with K. Piskaryov performs a climb of Bu-Ul'gen via the western wall (one of the first wall climbs in the history of the Soviet alpinism).
[…] In 1940 he participates in a record-making traversal[…] He manages, almost by a miracle, to stop the fall of A. Gromov, who had fallen along with a snow shelf. It was with this traversal that Aleksandrov completed the alpinist sports master requirements. The Great Patriotic war postponed awarding him this honorary title until 1949.
- (See A.D. Aleksandrov in the mountains (an alpinist biography), Savvon S.M., [1], p.182–183)
During his rectorship, Aleksandrov also advanced the mountaineering sport activities in the university, actively participating in the climbs.
The fiftieth birthday was celebrated by Aleksandrov in the mountains with his friends. On that day he made a solo first climb of an
- …unnamed peak 6222 m (Shakhdarinsk ridge, Pamir
The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range in Central Asia formed by the junction or knot of the Himalayas, Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, and Hindu Kush ranges. They are among the world’s highest mountains and since Victorian times they have been known as the "Roof of the World", translated from...
), that as he suggested was then named "The peak of the Leningrad university."
During later years Aleksandrov didn't undertake climbs due to health problems, yet he never ceased dreaming of climbs. Finally, in 1982, the year of his seventieth birthday, he, together with K. Tolstov, performs in
Tian ShanThe Tian Shan , also commonly spelled Tien Shan, is a mountain range located in Central Asia...
his last climb, of the Panfilov Peak…
-
- (same source)
External links
(with additional photos) (incomplete students listing as of December 2004)