Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky (russian: Ива́н Гео́ргиевич Петро́вский) (18 January 1901 – 15 January 1973) (the family name is also transliterated as Petrovskii or Petrowsky) was 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, ...

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 ...

working mainly in the field of

partial differential equation In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a Multivariable calculus, multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be sol ...

s. He greatly contributed to the solution of

Hilbert David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many a ...

19th 19 (nineteen) is the natural number following 18 and preceding 20. It is a prime number. Mathematics 19 is the eighth prime number, and forms a sexy prime with 13, a twin prime with 17, and a cousin prime with 23. It is the third full re ...

and

16th 16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. 16 is a composite number, and a square number, being 42 = 4 × 4. It is the smallest number with exactly five divisors, its proper divisors being , , and . In English speech, ...

problems, and discovered what are now called

Petrovsky lacuna In mathematics, a Petrovsky lacuna, named for the Russian mathematician I. G. Petrovsky, is a region where the fundamental solution of a linear hyperbolic partial differential equation vanishes. They were studied by who found topological ...

s. He also worked on the theories of

boundary value problem In mathematics, in the field of differential equations, a boundary value problem is a differential equation together with a set of additional constraints, called the boundary conditions. A solution to a boundary value problem is a solution to t ...

probability Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an Event (probability theory), event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and ...

, and on the

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformations, such ...

algebraic curve In mathematics, an affine algebraic plane curve is the zero set of a polynomial in two variables. A projective algebraic plane curve is the zero set in a projective plane of a homogeneous polynomial in three variables. An affine algebraic plane c ...

s and

surfaces A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. Surface or surfaces may also refer to: Mathematics *Surface (mathematics), a generalization of a plane which needs not be flat *Surf ...

Biography

Petrovsky was a student of

Dmitri Egorov Dmitri Fyodorovich Egorov (russian: Дми́трий Фёдорович Его́ров; December 22, 1869 – September 10, 1931) was a Russian and Soviet mathematician known for contributions to the areas of differential geometry and mathematica ...

. Among his students were

Olga Ladyzhenskaya Olga Aleksandrovna Ladyzhenskaya (russian: Óльга Алекса́ндровна Лады́женская, link=no, p=ˈolʲɡə ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvnə ɫɐˈdɨʐɨnskəɪ̯ə, a=Ru-Olga Aleksandrovna Ladyzhenskaya.wav; 7 March 1922 – 12 Jan ...

, Yevgeniy Landis,

Olga Oleinik Olga Arsenievna Oleinik (also as ''Oleĭnik'') HFRSE (russian: link=no, О́льга Арсе́ньевна Оле́йник) (2 July 1925 – 13 October 2001) was a Soviet mathematician who conducted pioneering work on the theory of partial di ...

and Sergei Godunov. Petrovsky taught at

Steklov Institute of Mathematics Steklov Institute of Mathematics or Steklov Mathematical Institute (russian: Математический институт имени В.А.Стеклова) is a premier research institute based in Moscow, specialized in mathematics, and a part ...

. He was a member of 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 ...

since 1946 and was awarded

Hero of Socialist Labor The Hero of Socialist Labour (russian: links=no, Герой Социалистического Труда, Geroy Sotsialisticheskogo Truda) was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It repre ...

in 1969. He was the president of

Moscow State 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 ...

(1951–1973) and the head of the

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the Nevanlinna Prize (to be rename ...

(

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, 1966). He is buried in the cemetery of the

Novodevichy Convent Novodevichy Convent, also known as Bogoroditse-Smolensky Monastery (russian: Новоде́вичий монасты́рь, Богоро́дице-Смоле́нский монасты́рь), is probably the best-known clois ...

in Moscow.

Selected publications

*. *. *. * * * *, *. *.

References

*. A very ample paper describing Petrovsky's scientific research, authored by friends, collaborators and pupils. *: the original paper translated in , and also in th
Russian Mathematical Surveys, 1981, 36:1, 1–8
*: an English translation of the paper . * *. An interview with

Vladimir Igorevich Arnol'd Vladimir Igorevich Arnold (alternative spelling Arnol'd, russian: link=no, Влади́мир И́горевич Арно́льд, 12 June 1937 – 3 June 2010) was a Soviet and Russian mathematician. While he is best known for the Kolmogorov–A ...

containing several important historical details about his teachers and other great mathematicians he knew when he was first studying and then working at the

MSU Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics The MSU Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics (russian: Механико-математический факультет МГУ) is a faculty of Moscow State University. History Although lectures in mathematics had been delivered since Moscow St ...

, including Ivan Petrowsky. * *. *

External links

* *
Short Biography of Petrowsky
– from the

Moscow Mathematical Journal The ''Moscow Mathematical Journal'' (MMJ) is a mathematics journal published quarterly by the Independent University of Moscow and the HSE Faculty of Mathematics and distributed by the American Mathematical Society. The journal published its firs ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrovsky, Ivan 1901 births 1973 deaths 20th-century Russian mathematicians Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Heroes of Socialist Labour Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology faculty Moscow State University faculty PDE theorists Soviet mathematicians Rectors of Moscow State University