Victor Yakovlevich Pan (russian: Пан Виктор Яковлевич) is a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (a ...

, known for his research on

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...

s for

polynomial In mathematics, a polynomial is an expression consisting of indeterminates (also called variables) and coefficients, that involves only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and positive-integer powers of variables. An exampl ...

s and

matrix multiplication In mathematics, particularly in linear algebra, matrix multiplication is a binary operation that produces a matrix from two matrices. For matrix multiplication, the number of columns in the first matrix must be equal to the number of rows in the s ...

Education and career

Pan earned his Ph.D. at

Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

in 1964, under the supervision of

Anatoli Georgievich Vitushkin Anatoli Georgievich Vitushkin (russian: Анато́лий Гео́ргиевич Виту́шкин) (June 25, 1931 – May 9, 2004) was a Soviet mathematician noted for his work on analytic capacity and other parts of mathematical analysis. Ear ...

, and continued his work at the

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

. During that time, he published a number of significant papers and became known informally as "polynomial Pan" for his pioneering work in the area of

computation Computation is any type of arithmetic or non-arithmetic calculation that follows a well-defined model (e.g., an algorithm). Mechanical or electronic devices (or, historically, people) that perform computations are known as ''computers''. An esp ...

s. In late 1970s, he immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and held positions at several institutions including

IBM Research IBM Research is the research and development division for IBM, an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. IBM Research is the largest industrial research or ...

. Since 1988, he has taught at

Lehman College Lehman College is a public college in the Bronx borough of New York City. Founded in 1931 as the Bronx campus of Hunter College, the school became an independent college within CUNY in September 1967. The college is named after Herbert H. Lehman ...

of the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pro ...

Contributions

Victor Pan is an expert in

computational complexity In computer science, the computational complexity or simply complexity of an algorithm is the amount of resources required to run it. Particular focus is given to computation time (generally measured by the number of needed elementary operations) ...

and has developed a number of new

algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...

. One of his notable early results is a proof that the number of multiplications in Horner's method is optimal. In the theory of matrix multiplication algorithms, Pan in 1978 published an algorithm with running time

O(n^)

. This was the first improvement over the

Strassen algorithm In linear algebra, the Strassen algorithm, named after Volker Strassen, is an algorithm for matrix multiplication. It is faster than the standard matrix multiplication algorithm for large matrices, with a better asymptotic complexity, although ...

after nearly a decade, and kicked off a long line of improvements in fast matrix multiplication that later included the Coppersmith–Winograd algorithm and subsequent developments. He wrote the text ''How to Multiply Matrices Faster'' (Springer, 1984) surveying early developments in this area. His 1982 algorithm still held the record in 2020 for the fastest "practically useful" matrix multiplication algorithm (i.e., with a small base size and manageable hidden constants). In 1998, with his student Xiaohan Huang, Pan showed that matrix multiplication algorithms can take advantage of rectangular matrices with unbalanced aspect ratios, multiplying them more quickly than the time bounds one would obtain using square matrix multiplication algorithms. Since that work, Pan has returned to symbolic and numeric computation and to an earlier theme of his research, computations with polynomials. He developed fast algorithms for the numerical computation of polynomial

roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...

, and, with Bernard Mourrain, algorithms for multivariate polynomials based on their relations to structured matrices. He also authored or co-authored several more books, on matrix and polynomial computation, structured matrices, and on numerical root-finding procedures.

Recognition

Pan was appointed

Distinguished Professor Distinguished Professor is an academic title given to some top tenured professors in a university, school, or department. Some distinguished professors may have endowed chairs. In the United States Often specific to one institution, titles such ...

at Lehman College in 2000. In 2013 he became a

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meeting ...

, for "contributions to the mathematical theory of computation".

Selected publications

Research papers

Books

References

External links

*
Profile in American Scientist
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pan, Victor Ya. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American computer scientists Soviet emigrants to the United States Soviet mathematicians Soviet computer scientists Theoretical computer scientists Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Lehman College faculty