The Lobachevsky Prize, awarded by the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across ...

, and the Lobachevsky Medal, awarded by the

Kazan State University Kazan (Volga region) Federal University (russian: Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет, tt-Cyrl, Казан (Идел буе) федераль университеты) is a public research uni ...

, are mathematical awards in honor of

Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky ( rus, Никола́й Ива́нович Лобаче́вский, p=nʲikɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ləbɐˈtɕɛfskʲɪj, a=Ru-Nikolai_Ivanovich_Lobachevsky.ogg; – ) was a Russian mathematician and geometer, kn ...

History

The Lobachevsky Prize was established in 1896 by the Kazan Physical and Mathematical Society, in honor of Russian mathematician

, who had been a professor at

Kazan University Kazan (Volga region) Federal University (russian: Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет, tt-Cyrl, Казан (Идел буе) федераль университеты) is a public research uni ...

, where he spent nearly his entire mathematical career. The prize was first awarded in 1897. Between the

October revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...

of 1917 and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

the Lobachevsky Prize was awarded only twice, by the

, in 1927 and 1937. In 1947, by a decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the jurisdiction over awarding the Lobachevsky Prize was transferred to the

USSR 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 ...

.B. N. Shapukov
“On history of Lobachevskii Medal and Lobachevskii Prize”
(in Russian), Tr. Geom. Semin., 24, Kazan Mathematical Society, Kazan, 2003, 11–16 The 1947 decree specified that there be two prizes, awarded every five years: the main, international, Lobachevsky Prize, for which both Soviet and foreign scientists would be eligible, and an honorable mention prize, for Soviet mathematicians only. In a 2003 article, B. N. Shapukov, a professor at the

, writes that the 1947 decree also specified that awarding of the prize by the USSR Academy of Sciences should be done in consultation with the Kazan State University, but this condition was not subsequently followed in practice. Another decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, in 1956, specified that there be only one, international, Lobachevsky Prize, to be awarded every three years. With the dissolution of the

Soviet Union 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, ...

at the end of 1991, the

became the legatee of the

. The Russian Academy of Sciences continued awarding the Lobachevsky Prize, awarding it in 1992, 1996 and 2000. As of January 2010, the Lobachevsky Prize is listed among its awards at the Russian Academy of Sciences website.Lobachevsky Prize

. Accessed January 4, 2010 In 1990-1991, while preparing the 1992 celebration of Lobachevsky's 200th anniversary, the Kazan State University organizers of this celebration lobbied the Soviet government to establish a special Kazan State University award in honor of Lobachevsky. A June 1991 decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR established the Lobachevsky Medal, for outstanding contributions to geometry, to be awarded by the

. The Lobachevsky Medal was awarded by the university in 1992, 1997 and 2002. The article of Shapukov mentions that during the 1997 competition for the Lobachevsky Medal, the Mathematics section of the

complained about the fact and the process of awarding the Medal. The Kazan State University website for the Lobachevsky Medal contains a list of recipients of the Lobachesky Prize from 1897 to 1989, which excludes the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Russian Academy of Sciences awards.The Lobachevsky Medal

. Accessed January 3, 2010 The Russian Academy of Sciences website for the Lobachevsky Prize contains a list of recipients of the prize from 1897 to 2000 and does not mention Kazan State University's Lobachevsky Medal.

Lobachevsky Prize winners

Kazan Physical and Mathematical Society/Kazan University

* Sophus Lie, 1897 *

Wilhelm Killing Wilhelm Karl Joseph Killing (10 May 1847 – 11 February 1923) was a German mathematician who made important contributions to the theories of Lie algebras, Lie groups, and non-Euclidean geometry. Life Killing studied at the University of Mü ...

, 1900 * David Hilbert, 1903 *

Ludwig Schlesinger Ludwig Schlesinger (Hungarian: Lajos Schlesinger, Slovak Ľudovít Schlesinger), (1 November 1864 – 15 December 1933) was a German mathematician known for the research in the field of linear differential equations. Biography Schlesinger att ...

, 1909 (awarded in 1912) * Friedrich Schur, 1912 * Hermann Weyl, 1927 * Élie Cartan, 1937 (main, international, prize) * Viktor V. Wagner, 1937 (special prize for young Soviet mathematicians) In 1906,

Beppo Levi Beppo Levi (14 May 1875 – 28 August 1961) was an Italian mathematician. He published high-level academic articles and books, not only on mathematics, but also on physics, history, philosophy, and pedagogy. Levi was a member of the Bologna Aca ...

received an honorable mention. The prize itself was not awarded.

Soviet Academy of Sciences

Nikolai Efimov Nikolai Vladimirovich Yefimov (russian: Никола́й Влади́мирович Ефи́мов; 31 May 1910 in Orenburg – 14 August 1982 in Moscow) was a Soviet mathematician. He is most famous for his work on generalized Hilbert's problem o ...

, 1951 * Aleksandr D. Alexandrov, 1951 *

Aleksei Pogorelov Aleksei Vasil'evich Pogorelov (russian: Алексе́й Васи́льевич Погоре́лов, ua, Олексі́й Васи́льович Погорє́лов; March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2002), was a Soviet and Ukrainian ...

, 1959 * Lev Pontryagin, 1966 *

Heinz Hopf Heinz Hopf (19 November 1894 – 3 June 1971) was a German mathematician who worked on the fields of topology and geometry. Early life and education Hopf was born in Gräbschen, Germany (now , part of Wrocław, Poland), the son of Elizabeth ( ...

, 1969 * Pavel Alexandrov, 1972 * Boris Delaunay, 1977 * Sergei Novikov, 1980 * Herbert Busemann, 1983 *

Andrey Kolmogorov Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov ( rus, Андре́й Никола́евич Колмого́ров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ kəlmɐˈɡorəf, a=Ru-Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov.ogg, 25 April 1903 – 20 October 1987) was a Sovi ...

, 1986 *

Friedrich Hirzebruch Friedrich Ernst Peter Hirzebruch ForMemRS (17 October 1927 – 27 May 2012) was a German mathematician, working in the fields of topology, complex manifolds and algebraic geometry, and a leading figure in his generation. He has been described as ...

, 1989

Russian Academy of Sciences

Vladimir Arnold 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– ...

, 1992 *

Grigory Margulis Grigory Aleksandrovich Margulis (russian: Григо́рий Алекса́ндрович Маргу́лис, first name often given as Gregory, Grigori or Gregori; born February 24, 1946) is a Russian-American mathematician known for his work on ...

, 1996 * Yurii Reshetnyak, 2000

Lobachevsky Medal winners

Kazan State University

* Aleksandr P. Norden, 1992 * Boris P. Komrakov, 1997 * Mikhail Gromov, 1997 *

Shiing-Shen Chern Shiing-Shen Chern (; , ; October 28, 1911 – December 3, 2004) was a Chinese-American mathematician and poet. He made fundamental contributions to differential geometry and topology. He has been called the "father of modern differential geome ...

, 2002 * Richard Schoen, 2017 * Daniel Wise, 2019 * Idzhad Sabitov, 2021 In 1997, Valery N. Berestovsky (Russia), Idjad Kh. Sabitov (Russia) and Boris Rosenfeld (USA) received an honorable mention.

Notes

References

*V. V. Vishnevsky, (in Russian)
The 200th anniversary of N. I. Lobachevsky, its outcomes and lessons.
Tr. Geom. Semin., 23, Kazan Mathematical Society, Kazan, 1997, 23-32 {{International mathematical activities Mathematics awards Awards established in 1896 Awards of the Russian Academy of Sciences