Mikhail Shlyomovich Birman (Russian: Михаил Шлёмович Бирман; born 17 January 1928 in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

; died 2 July 2009) was a Russian

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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and university professor. His research included

functional analysis Functional 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 (e.g. inner product, norm, topology, etc.) and the linear functions defined ...

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

and

mathematical physics Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and t ...

. In particular, he did research in the fields of

scattering theory In mathematics and physics, scattering theory is a framework for studying and understanding the scattering of waves and particles. Wave scattering corresponds to the collision and scattering of a wave with some material object, for instance su ...

, operators in

Hilbert spaces In mathematics, Hilbert spaces (named after David Hilbert) allow generalizing the methods of linear algebra and calculus from (finite-dimensional) Euclidean vector spaces to spaces that may be infinite-dimensional. Hilbert spaces arise natura ...

and the

spectral theory In mathematics, spectral theory is an inclusive term for theories extending the eigenvector and eigenvalue theory of a single square matrix to a much broader theory of the structure of operators in a variety of mathematical spaces. It is a result ...

of differential operators. Together with Mikhail Zakharovich Solomyak he developed the theory of double operator integrals.

Life

Birman was born in 1928 in

(now St. Petersburg) to a father that was a professor and specialist in

theoretical mechanics Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to objects re ...

and a mother that was a school teacher. During the

Second World War 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the family fled to Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). After the war the family went back to Leningrad. In 1950 Birman graduated from the Mathematical-Mechanical Faculty of

Leningrad University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...

with a diploma. Although Birman was one of the best students, he was denied a doctorate at Leningrad University because of his

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

origins and the state

antisemitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Ant ...

policy of the time. In 1947 he married Tatyana Petrovna Ilyina. Eventually in 1954 he did his doctorate at the Leningrad Mining University. In 1956 he joined the Department of Mathematical Physics at the Physics Faculty of Leningrad University. In 1962 he received a Sc.D. (Doctor of Science) for his work ''The Spectrum of Singular Boundary Value Problems''. In 1974 he was an invited speaker at 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 ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...

, but was prohibited to leave 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, ...

. Birman was the supervisor for more than 20 students, including Boris Pavlov and Timo Weidl. He was also editor of the Russian mathematics journals "Algebra i Analiz" and "Funktsional'Nyi Analiz i Ego Prilozheniya". He remained in the Department of Mathematical Physics at Saint Petersburg University until his death in 2009.

Scientific work

Birman wrote three monographs, six books and over 160 scholarly papers.

Books (selection)

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Literature

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References

External links

Biography from the St. Petersburg Department of Steklov Mathematical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birman, Mikhail Shlyomovich Soviet mathematicians Russian mathematicians 1928 births 2009 deaths