Ashot Vezirovich Petrosian (; June 2, 1930 – February 23, 1998) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

n mathematician. He completed his PhD in

Computational Mathematics Computational mathematics is the study of the interaction between mathematics and calculations done by a computer.National Science Foundation, Division of Mathematical ScienceProgram description PD 06-888 Computational Mathematics 2006. Retri ...

in 1964 under the supervision of Julius Anatolyevich Schrader. He was a founding member of the

Mergelyan Institute of Mathematical Machines The Yerevan Computer Research and Development Institute (YCRDI) ( (''Yerevani mat'ematikakan mekenaneri gitahetazotakan institut (YerMMGHI)'')), is a scientific research institute and the pioneer of the IT and software industry in Armenia. It w ...

and the Computing Center of the

Armenian National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA) (, ''Hayastani Hanrapetut’yan gitut’yunneri azgayin akademia'') is the Armenian national academy, functioning as the primary body that conducts research and coordinates activ ...

. He also contributed to the development of several generations of advanced digital computer systems in Armenia, including the

Nairi (computer) The first Nairi (, ) computer was developed and launched into production in 1964, at the Yerevan Research Institute of Mathematical Machines (Yerevan, Armenia), and were chiefly designed by Hrachya Ye. Hovsepyan. In 1965, a modified version called ...

and

ES EVM The ES EVM (, "Unified System of Electronic Computing Machines"), or YeS EVM, also known in English literature as the Unified System or Ryad (, "Series"), is a series of mainframe computers generally compatible with IBM's System/360 and System/ ...

Biography

Ashot V. Petrosian was born in 1930 in a small village near

Vardenis Vardenis ( ) is a town in the Vardenis Municipality of the Gegharkunik Province of Armenia. It is located in the valley of the Masrik River, on the territory of the Masrik artesian basin at Above mean sea level, above sea level, near the south ...

. He finished high school as a valedictorian in 1949 in

Dilijan Dilijan () is a spa town and urban municipal community in the Dilijan Municipality of the Tavush Province of Armenia. The town is one of the most important resorts in Armenia, situated within the Dilijan National Park. The forested town is home t ...

, where his parents settled after escaping the massacre of Armenians in eastern Turkey back in 1915. He went on to study mathematics and graduated with honors from the

Yerevan State University Yerevan State University (YSU; , , ), also simply University of Yerevan, is the oldest continuously operating public university in Armenia. Founded in 1919, it is the largest university in the country. It is thus informally known as Armenia's ...

, faculty of Physics and Math in 1954. He taught Math courses at the same University until 1955, when he was admitted to

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

to pursue a Ph.D. degree (under supervision of

Lazar Lyusternik Lazar Aronovich Lyusternik (also Lusternik, Lusternick, Ljusternik; ; 31 December 1899 – 22 July 1981) was a Soviet mathematician. He is famous for his work in topology and differential geometry, to which he applied the variational principle. U ...

). Upon completion of his studies he was offered a position at the

Steklov Institute of Mathematics Steklov Institute of Mathematics or Steklov Mathematical Institute () is a premier research institute based in Moscow, specialized in mathematics, and a part of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The institute is named after Vladimir Andreevich Stek ...

; however, he decided to return to his native country of Armenia. In 1957 he was appointed to serve as a chief engineer and then as a director of Mathematical Division at the

Yerevan Computer Research and Development Institute The Yerevan Computer Research and Development Institute (YCRDI) ( (''Yerevani mat'ematikakan mekenaneri gitahetazotakan institut (YerMMGHI)'')), is a scientific research institute and the pioneer of the IT and software industry in Armenia. It w ...

(YCRDI, known as Mergelyan Institute). During his tenure at the YCRDI, the institute became one of the largest producers of computer equipment in the former USSR. He also worked as the vice-principal (1963–65) and principal (1965–70) of the Institute for Informatics and Automation Problems (IIAP), formerly known as the Computing Center of the

.Academic Archive
of

Andrey Ershov Andrey Petrovich Yershov (; 19 April 1931, Moscow – 8 December 1988, Moscow) was a Soviet computer scientist, notable as a pioneer in systems programming and programming language research. Donald Knuth considers him to have independently co ...

During his scientific career, Prof. Petrosian taught various mathematics courses at the

(1957–78) and at the

Yerevan Polytechnic Institute The National Polytechnic University of Armenia () is a technical university located in Yerevan, Armenia. Established as the Karl Marx Institute of Polytechnic in 1933, it provides educational and research programs in various fields of technology ...

(1978–86). He has authored several textbooks, patents, and monographs in the areas of

computational mathematics Computational mathematics is the study of the interaction between mathematics and calculations done by a computer.National Science Foundation, Division of Mathematical ScienceProgram description PD 06-888 Computational Mathematics 2006. Retri ...

, algorithmic information theory,

automata An automaton (; : automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions. Some automata, such as bellstrikers i ...

and

discrete mathematics Discrete mathematics is the study of mathematical structures that can be considered "discrete" (in a way analogous to discrete variables, having a bijection with the set of natural numbers) rather than "continuous" (analogously to continuous f ...

. He has edited five volumes of the Proceedings of the Computing Center of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences and served as a Ph.D. adviser to over 20 post-graduate students, mainly in the

Graph Theory In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of ''graph (discrete mathematics), graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of ''Vertex (graph ...

field.

Selected publications

* * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrosian, Ashot 1930 births 1998 deaths 20th-century Armenian mathematicians Moscow State University alumni Academic staff of Moscow State University Soviet mathematicians