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

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

; 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 (for example, Inner product space#Definition, inner product, Norm (mathematics ...

partial differential equations In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which involves a multivariable function and one or more of its partial derivatives. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" that solves the equation, similar to how ...

and

mathematical physics Mathematical physics is 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 the de ...

. In particular, he did research in the fields of

scattering theory In physics, scattering is a wide range of physical processes where moving particles or radiation of some form, such as light or sound, are forced to deviate from a straight trajectory by localized non-uniformities (including particles and radiat ...

, operators in

Hilbert spaces In mathematics, a Hilbert space is a real number, real or complex number, complex inner product space that is also a complete metric space with respect to the metric induced by the inner product. It generalizes the notion of Euclidean space. The ...

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 operator (mathematics), operators in a variety of mathematical ...

differential operator In mathematics, a differential operator is an operator defined as a function of the differentiation operator. It is helpful, as a matter of notation first, to consider differentiation as an abstract operation that accepts a function and retur ...

s. 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 () is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to objects may result in displacements, which are changes of an object's position relative to its e ...

and a mother that was a school teacher. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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 (SPBGU; ) is a public university, public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the uni ...

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

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

origins and the state

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

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 IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, but was prohibited to leave the

Soviet Union 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 ...

. 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