◀ ▲ ▶History / 20th-century / Person: Pogorelov, Aleksei Vasilevich
Person: Pogorelov, Aleksei Vasilevich
Aleksei Vasilevich Pogorelov was a Russian mathematician who worked in geometry.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- The Pogorelovs, like most other kulaks, strongly opposed the efforts to force them to give up their small privately owned farm and join a large cooperative agricultural establishment.
- Aleksei Vasilevich attended High School Number 80 in Kharkov.
- Pogorelov entered Kharkov State University in 1937 to study mathematics and physics - this was largely due to the influence of Akhiezer since Pogorelov also showed considerable artistic skills and his parents had been keen for him to develop these talents.
- Pogorelov was conscripted into the army and, as one of the most talented students, was not sent to the front but sent to the N E Zhukovskii Military Aviation Engineering Academy in Moscow.
- Pogorelov's interests were in geometry and his postgraduate studies at Moscow State University were jointly supervised by Nikolai Vladimirovich Efimov in Moscow and Aleksandr Danilovic Aleksandrov who was based in Leningrad.
- Within a year, Pogorelov had solved the problem that Aleksandrov had proposed for him.
- Pogorelov's work proved definitive leading to him proving that any two isometric closed convex surfaces are congruent in 1951.
- But we have got ahead of ourselves in describing Pogorelov's career, for after the award of his Candidate's degree by Moscow State University in 1947, he was appointed to the Geometry Department of Institute of Mathematics at Kharkov State University.
- It was Pogorelov's choice to teach at Kharkov University for he received, but rejected, offers of positions in both Leningrad State University and Moscow State University.
- In the year 2000 Pogorelov moved to Moscow where he worked at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics.
- As well as a remarkable research record, Pogorelov has written a large number of books, both monographs on specialist research topics and textbooks designed for teaching both at universities and in secondary schools.
- Moreover, the same title also means that the subject covered by the Pogorelov's monograph is much larger.
- Parallel with the method of approximation of the surfaces by polyhedra, Pogorelov significantly develops the regular theory of surfaces in the Euclidean and Riemannian spaces.
- Pogorelov received many honours for his outstanding contributions.
- in May 2004, the Department of Geometry at the Institute for Low-Temperature Physics and Engineering of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences, together with the Chair of Geometry of the Kharkov National University, organized the International Seminar "Geometry in the Large" dedicated to the 85th anniversary of Academician Pogorelov.
- In their speeches, Academicians V A Marchenko and V V Eremenko, A A Borisenko (Corresponding Member of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences), representatives of the other institutions and Kharkov administration, Consul of Russian Federation in Kharkov, and others described the outstanding contribution made by Academician Pogorelov to various fields of science, his life, and remarkable features of his mind and character.
- Together with his brilliant mathematical talent and well-founded self-respect, Aleksei Vasil'evich combined modesty, friendliness, and attentiveness to his colleagues and students.
Born 3 March 1919, Korocha, now Belgorod Oblast, Russia. Died 17 December 2002, Moscow, Russia.
View full biography at MacTutor
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Origin Russia
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References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
