Andrey (Andrei) Andreyevich Markov (June 14, 1856 N.S. – July 20, 1922) was a
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...
. He is best known for his work on theory of
stochastic processIn probability theory, a stochastic process, or sometimes random process, is the counterpart to a deterministic process...
es. His research later became known as
Markov chainIn mathematics, a Markov chain, named after Andrey Markov, is a random process where all information about the future is contained in the present state . To be more exact, the process has the Markov property, meaning that future states depend only on the present state, and are independent of past...
s.
He and his younger brother
Vladimir Andreevich MarkovVladimir Andreevich Markov was a Russian mathematician, brother of Andrey Markov. Died of tuberculosis at the age of 25.- External links :*...
(1871-1897) proved
Markov brothers' inequalityIn mathematics, the Markov brothers' inequality is an inequality proved by Andrey Markov for and by his brother Vladimir Markov for Proposition: Let be a polynomial of degree...
.
His son, another
Andrey Andreevich MarkovAndrey Andreyevich Markov Jr. was a Soviet mathematician, the son of the great Russian mathematician Andrey Andreyevich Markov Sr, and one of the key founders of the Russian school of constructive mathematics and logic...
(1903-1979), was also a notable mathematician, making contributions on constructive mathematics and
recursive functionRecursive function may refer to:* Recursion : a procedure or subroutine, implemented in a programming language, whose implementation references itself...
theory.
Biography
Andrey Andreevich Markov was born in
RyazanRyazan is a city in the Central Federal District of Russia and the administrative center of Ryazan Oblast. It is on the Oka River south-east of Moscow. Its population is 521,560 ; 514,638...
as the son of the secretary of the public forest management of Ryazan, Andrey Grigorevich Markov, and his first wife Nadezhda Petrovna Markova.
In the beginning of the 1860s Andrey Grigorevich moved to St Petersburg to become an asset manager of the princess Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Valvatyeva.
In 1866 Andrey Andreevich’s school life began with his entrance into Saint Petersburg’s fifth grammar school. Already during his school time Andrey was intensely engaged in higher mathematics. As a 17-year-old grammar school student he informed
BunyakovskyVictor Yakovlevich Bunyakovsky was a Russian mathematician, member and later vice president of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences....
,
KorkinAleksandr Nikolayevich Korkin was a Russian mathematician. He made contribution to the development of partial differential equations...
and
Yegor ZolotarevYegor Ivanovich Zolotarev was a Russian mathematician.Yegor was born as a son of Agafya IzotovnaZolotareva and the merchant Ivan Vasilevich Zolotarev in Saint Petersburg, Russia....
about an apparently new method to solve linear ordinary differential equations and was invited to the so-called Korkin Saturdays, where Korkin's students regularly met. In 1874 he finished the school and began his studies at the physico-mathematical faculty of
St Petersburg 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...
.
Among his teachers were
Yulian SokhotskiJulian Karol Sochocki was a Polish mathematician....
(differential calculus, higher algebra), Konstantin Posse (analytic geometry), Yegor Zolotarev (integral calculus),
Pafnuty ChebyshevPafnuty Lvovich Chebyshev was a Russian mathematician. His name can be alternatively transliterated as Chebychev, Chebyshov, Tchebycheff or Tschebyscheff .-Early years:...
(number theory, probability theory),
Aleksandr KorkinAleksandr Nikolayevich Korkin was a Russian mathematician. He made contribution to the development of partial differential equations...
(ordinary and partial differential equations), Okatov (mechanism theory), Somov (mechanics) and Budaev (descriptive and higher geometry).
In 1877 he was awarded the gold medal for his outstanding solution of the problem “About Integration of Differential Equations by Continuous Fractions with an Application to the Equation “ In the following year he passed the candidate examinations and remained at the university to prepare for the lecturer’s position.
In April 1880 Markov defended his master thesis “About Binary Quadratic Forms with Positive Determinant“, which was encouraged by Aleksandr Korkin and Yegor Zolotarev.
Five years later, in January 1885, there followed his doctoral thesis “About Some Applications of Algebraic Continuous Fractions“.
His
pedagogicalPedagogy is the study of being a teacher. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction.Pedagogy is also sometimes referred to as the correct use of teaching strategies . For example, Paulo Freire referred to his method of teaching adults as "critical pedagogy"...
work began after the defense of his master thesis in autumn 1880. As a
privatdozentPrivate docent is a title conferred in some European university systems, especially in German-speaking countries, for someone who pursues an academic career and holds all formal qualifications to become a tenured university professor.-Becoming:Privatedocentship is conferred to academics who have...
he lectured on differential and integral calculus. Later he lectured alternately on “introduction to analysis“, probability theory (succeeding Chebyshev who had left the university in 1882) and calculus of differences. From 1895/96 until 1905 he additionally lectured on differential calculus.
One year after the defense of the doctoral thesis, he was appointed extraordinary professor (1886) and in the same year he was elected adjunct to the Academy of Sciences. In 1890, after the death of Viktor Bunyakovsky, Markov became extraordinary member of the academy. His promotion to an ordinary professor of St Petersburg University followed in autumn 1894.
In 1896, he was elected ordinary member of the academy as the successor of Chebyshev. In 1905 he was appointed merited professor and got the right to retire which he immediately used. Till 1910, however, he continued to lecture calculus of differences.
In connection with student riots in 1908, professors and lecturers of Saint Petersburg University were ordered to observe their students. Markov initially refused to accept this decree and wrote an explanation in which he declined to be an “agent of the governance”. Markov was rejected from a further teaching activity at the Saint Petersburg University, and he eventually decided to retire from the university.
In 1913 the council of Saint Petersburg elected nine scientists honorary members of the university.
Markov was among them, but his election was not affirmed by the minister of education. The affirmation was done only four years later, after the February revolution in 1917. Markov then resumed his teaching activities and lectured probability theory and calculus of differences until his death in 1922.
Excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church
In 1912 Markov in protest to
Leo TolstoyLeo Tolstoy, or Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy , was a Russian writer widely regarded as among the greatest of novelists. His masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina represent in their scope, breadth and vivid depiction of 19th-century Russian life and attitudes, the peak of realist...
's excommunication from the
Russian Orthodox ChurchThe Russian Orthodox Church ; or The Moscow Patriarchate , also known...
requested that he too be excommunicated. As such Markov was formally excommunicated from the Church.
External links