MSU Department of Mechanics and Mathematics
Encyclopedia
The MSU Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics is one of the most esteemed faculties of Moscow State University
, widely regarded by students as one of the toughest faculties in the university.
have been delivered since Moscow State University
was founded in 1755, the separate mathematical and physical department was founded only in 1804. The Mathematics and Mechanics Department was founded on May the 1st 1933 and comprised mathematics
, mechanics
and astronomy
departments (the latter passed to the Physics
Department in 1956). An extensive development of the department began after the World War II
. In 1953 the department moved to the new building on the Sparrow Hills
and the current division in mathematics
and mechanics
branches was settled. In 1970 the Department of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics broke off the department due to the extensive research in computer science
.
branch) and 14 research laboratories. Around 350 professors, assistant professors and leading researchers work at the department, some of them working also in different institutions of Russian Academy of Sciences
. Around 2000 students and 450 postgraduates study at the department getting professions “Mathematics
. Applied mathematics
” and “Mechanics
. Applied mathematics
”. The education lasts 5 years (6 years from 2011) and students choose their chair at 3rd year.
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
, widely regarded by students as one of the toughest faculties in the university.
Brief history
Although lectures in mathematicsMathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
have been delivered since Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
was founded in 1755, the separate mathematical and physical department was founded only in 1804. The Mathematics and Mechanics Department was founded on May the 1st 1933 and comprised mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, mechanics
Mechanics
Mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behavior of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment....
and astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
departments (the latter passed to the Physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
Department in 1956). An extensive development of the department began after the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1953 the department moved to the new building on the Sparrow Hills
Sparrow Hills
Sparrow Hills, Vorobyovy Gory is a hill on the right bank of the Moskva River and one of highest points in Moscow with an altitude up to 220 m ....
and the current division in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and mechanics
Mechanics
Mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behavior of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment....
branches was settled. In 1970 the Department of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics broke off the department due to the extensive research in computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
.
Current state
Today the Mathematics and Mechanics Department comprises 26 chairs (17 in the mathematical and 9 in the mechanicsMechanics
Mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behavior of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment....
branch) and 14 research laboratories. Around 350 professors, assistant professors and leading researchers work at the department, some of them working also in different institutions of Russian Academy of Sciences
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....
. Around 2000 students and 450 postgraduates study at the department getting professions “Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
. Applied mathematics
Applied mathematics
Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with mathematical methods that are typically used in science, engineering, business, and industry. Thus, "applied mathematics" is a mathematical science with specialized knowledge...
” and “Mechanics
Mechanics
Mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behavior of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment....
. Applied mathematics
Applied mathematics
Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with mathematical methods that are typically used in science, engineering, business, and industry. Thus, "applied mathematics" is a mathematical science with specialized knowledge...
”. The education lasts 5 years (6 years from 2011) and students choose their chair at 3rd year.
Notable Faculty (Past and Present)
- Number theoryNumber theoryNumber theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers. Number theorists study prime numbers as well...
– B.N.DelaunayBoris 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.I.KhinchinAleksandr Yakovlevich KhinchinAleksandr Yakovlevich Khinchin was a Soviet mathematician and one of the most significant people in the Soviet school of probability theory. He was born in the village of Kondrovo, Kaluga Governorate, Russian Empire. While studying at Moscow State University, he became one of the first followers...
, L.G.Shnirelman, A.O.GelfondAlexander GelfondAlexander Osipovich Gelfond was a Soviet mathematician, author of Gelfond's theorem.-Biography:Alexander Gelfond was born in St Petersburg, Russian Empire in the family of a professional physician and amateur philosopher Osip Isaakovich Gelfond. He entered the Moscow State University in 1924,...
- AlgebraAlgebraAlgebra is the branch of mathematics concerning the study of the rules of operations and relations, and the constructions and concepts arising from them, including terms, polynomials, equations and algebraic structures...
– B.N.DelaunayBoris 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....
, O.U.SchmidtOtto SchmidtOtto Yulyevich Schmidt was a Soviet scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesman, academician, Hero of the USSR , and member of the Communist Party.-Biography:He was born in Mogilev, Russian Empire...
, A.G.KuroshAleksandr Gennadievich KuroshAleksandr Gennadievich Kurosh was a Soviet mathematician, known for his work in abstract algebra. He is credited with writing the first modern and high-level text on group theory, his The Theory of Groups published in 1944.He was born in Yartsevo near Smolensk, and died in Moscow. He received his...
, Yu.I.Manin
- TopologyTopologyTopology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...
– P.S.AlexandrovPavel Sergeevich AlexandrovPavel Sergeyevich Alexandrov , sometimes romanized Aleksandroff or Aleksandrov was a Soviet Russian mathematician...
, A.N.TychonoffAndrey Nikolayevich TychonoffAndrey Nikolayevich Tikhonov was a Soviet and Russian mathematician known for important contributions to topology, functional analysis, mathematical physics, and ill-posed problems. He was also inventor of magnetotellurics method in geology. Tikhonov originally published in German, whence the...
, L.S.PontryaginLev Semenovich PontryaginLev Semenovich Pontryagin was a Soviet mathematician. He was born in Moscow and lost his eyesight due to a primus stove explosion when he was 14...
- Real analysisReal analysisReal analysis, is a branch of mathematical analysis dealing with the set of real numbers and functions of a real variable. In particular, it deals with the analytic properties of real functions and sequences, including convergence and limits of sequences of real numbers, the calculus of the real...
– D.E.MenshovDmitrii Evgenevich MenshovDmitrii Evgenevich Menshov was a Russian mathematician known for his contributions to the theory of trigonometric series.He was a student of Nikolai Luzin. He was an advisor of Sergey Borisovich Stechkin. He received USSR State Prize in 1951...
, A.I.KhinchinAleksandr Yakovlevich KhinchinAleksandr Yakovlevich Khinchin was a Soviet mathematician and one of the most significant people in the Soviet school of probability theory. He was born in the village of Kondrovo, Kaluga Governorate, Russian Empire. While studying at Moscow State University, he became one of the first followers...
, N.K.BariNina BariNina Karlovna Bari was a Soviet mathematician known for her work on trigonometric series. She was killed by a train in the Moscow Metro, and her colleagues speculated that she committed suicide, prompted by the death of her mentor Nikolai Luzin ten years earlier, a man who may have been her lover....
, A.N.KolmogorovAndrey KolmogorovAndrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov was a Soviet mathematician, preeminent in the 20th century, who advanced various scientific fields, among them probability theory, topology, intuitionistic logic, turbulence, classical mechanics and computational complexity.-Early life:Kolmogorov was born at Tambov...
, S.B.Stechkin
- Complex analysisComplex analysisComplex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is useful in many branches of mathematics, including number theory and applied mathematics; as well as in physics,...
– I.I.PrivalovIvan PrivalovIvan Ivanovich Privalov was a Russian mathematician best known for his work on analytic functions.- Biography :...
, M.A.LavrentievMikhail LavrentyevMikhail Alekseevich Lavrentyev or Lavrentiev was an outstanding Soviet mathematician and hydrodynamicist.-Biography:...
, A.O.GelfondAlexander GelfondAlexander Osipovich Gelfond was a Soviet mathematician, author of Gelfond's theorem.-Biography:Alexander Gelfond was born in St Petersburg, Russian Empire in the family of a professional physician and amateur philosopher Osip Isaakovich Gelfond. He entered the Moscow State University in 1924,...
, M.V.KeldyshMstislav KeldyshMstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh was a Soviet scientist in the field of mathematics and mechanics, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences , President of the USSR Academy of Sciences , three times Hero of Socialist Labor , fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . He was one of the key figures...
- Ordinary differential equations – V.V.Golubev, V.V.Stepanov, V.V.Nemitski, V.I.ArnoldVladimir ArnoldVladimir Igorevich Arnold was a Soviet and Russian mathematician. While he is best known for the Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser theorem regarding the stability of integrable Hamiltonian systems, he made important contributions in several areas including dynamical systems theory, catastrophe theory,...
, N.N.Nekhoroshev
- Partial differential equations – I.G.PetrovskyIvan PetrovskyIvan Georgievich Petrovsky, also Petrovskii was a Soviet mathematician in the field of partial differential equations, and studied Petrovsky lacunas. He greatly contributed to solution of Hilbert's 19th and 16th problems...
, S.L.SobolevSergei Lvovich SobolevSergei Lvovich Sobolev was a Soviet mathematician working in mathematical analysis and partial differential equations. He was born in St. Petersburg, and died in Moscow.-Work:...
, E.M.Landis
- Calculus of variationsCalculus of variationsCalculus of variations is a field of mathematics that deals with extremizing functionals, as opposed to ordinary calculus which deals with functions. A functional is usually a mapping from a set of functions to the real numbers. Functionals are often formed as definite integrals involving unknown...
– L.A.LusternikLazar LyusternikLazar Aronovich Lyusternik was a Soviet mathematician....
, L.G.Shnirelman
- Functional analysisFunctional analysisFunctional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure and the linear operators acting upon these spaces and respecting these structures in a suitable sense...
– A.N.KolmogorovAndrey KolmogorovAndrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov was a Soviet mathematician, preeminent in the 20th century, who advanced various scientific fields, among them probability theory, topology, intuitionistic logic, turbulence, classical mechanics and computational complexity.-Early life:Kolmogorov was born at Tambov...
, I.M.GelfandIsrael GelfandIsrael Moiseevich Gelfand, also written Israïl Moyseyovich Gel'fand, or Izrail M. Gelfand was a Soviet mathematician who made major contributions to many branches of mathematics, including group theory, representation theory and functional analysis...
- Probability theoryProbability theoryProbability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with analysis of random phenomena. The central objects of probability theory are random variables, stochastic processes, and events: mathematical abstractions of non-deterministic events or measured quantities that may either be single...
– A.I.KhinchinAleksandr Yakovlevich KhinchinAleksandr Yakovlevich Khinchin was a Soviet mathematician and one of the most significant people in the Soviet school of probability theory. He was born in the village of Kondrovo, Kaluga Governorate, Russian Empire. While studying at Moscow State University, he became one of the first followers...
, A.N.KolmogorovAndrey KolmogorovAndrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov was a Soviet mathematician, preeminent in the 20th century, who advanced various scientific fields, among them probability theory, topology, intuitionistic logic, turbulence, classical mechanics and computational complexity.-Early life:Kolmogorov was born at Tambov...
, Ya.G.SinaiYakov G. SinaiYakov Grigorevich Sinai is an influential mathematician working in the theory of dynamical systems, in mathematical physics and in probability theory. His work has shaped the modern metric theory of dynamical systems...
- Differential geometry – V.F.KaganVeniamin KaganVeniamin Fedorovich Kagan was a Russian and Soviet mathematician and expert in geometry. He is the maternal grandfather of mathematician Yakov Sinai.-Biography:...
, S.P.Finikov, P.K.Raschevski, A.T.Fomenko, N.EfimovNikolai EfimovNikolai Vladimirovich Efimov was a Soviet mathematician. He is most famous for his work on generalized Hilbert's problem on surfaces of negative curvature....
- Discrete mathematicsDiscrete mathematicsDiscrete mathematics is the study of mathematical structures that are fundamentally discrete rather than continuous. In contrast to real numbers that have the property of varying "smoothly", the objects studied in discrete mathematics – such as integers, graphs, and statements in logic – do not...
– O.B.LupanovOleg LupanovOleg Borisovich Lupanov was a Soviet and Russian mathematician, dean of the Moscow State University's Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics , head of the Chair of Discrete Mathematics of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics .Together with his graduate school advisor, Sergey Vsevolodovich...
- Theoretical Mechanics and MechatronicsMechatronicsMechatronics is the combination of mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, computer engineering, software engineering, control engineering, and systems design engineering in order to design, and manufacture useful products. Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary field of engineering, that is...
- S.A.Chaplygin, D.E.OkhotsimskyDmitrii Evgenievich OkhotsimskyDmitry Yevgenyevich Okhotsimsky was a Soviet Russian space scientist who was the pioneer of space ballistics in the USSR. He wrote fundamental works in applied celestial mechanics, spaceflight dynamics and robotics.-Biography:...
, V.V.RumyantsevValentin Vital'yevich RumyantsevValentin Vital'yevich Rumyantsev — Russian specialist in mechanics, stability theory and control...
- Aero-AerodynamicsAerodynamics is a branch of dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a moving object. Aerodynamics is a subfield of fluid dynamics and gas dynamics, with much theory shared between them. Aerodynamics is often used synonymously with gas dynamics, with...
and hydrodynamics – S.A.Chaplygin, L.I.SedovLeonid I. SedovLeonid Ivanovitch Sedov was a leading physicist of the Soviet Union.During WW2 he devised the so-called Sedov Similarity Solution for a blast wave. He was also the first chairman of the USSR Space Exploration program and broke first news of its existence in 1955...
- Wave theory – A.I.NekrasovAleksandr NekrasovAleksandr Ivanovic Nekrasov was a Russian mathematician known for his mathematical contributions to hydromechanics and aeromechanics....
, L.N.Sretenski
- Boundary layer theory, viscous fluidsFluid mechanicsFluid mechanics is the study of fluids and the forces on them. Fluid mechanics can be divided into fluid statics, the study of fluids at rest; fluid kinematics, the study of fluids in motion; and fluid dynamics, the study of the effect of forces on fluid motion...
, external ballisticsExternal ballisticsExternal ballistics is the part of the science of ballistics that deals with the behaviour of a non-powered projectile in flight. External ballistics is frequently associated with firearms, and deals with the behaviour of the bullet after it exits the barrel and before it hits the target.-Forces...
– N.A.Slezkin
- Gyroscope theoryGyroscopeA gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum. In essence, a mechanical gyroscope is a spinning wheel or disk whose axle is free to take any orientation...
– B.V.Bulgakov
- Elasticity theory – L.S.Lebenzon