Andrey Nikolayevich Kolmogorov

Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (Russian: Андрей Николаевич Колмогоров; 25 April 1903 – 20 October 1987) was a 20th-century Russian mathematician who made significant contributions to the mathematics of probability theory, topology, intuitionistic logic, turbulence, classical mechanics, algorithmic information theory and computational complexity.

Early life

Andrey Kolmogorov was born in Tambov, about 500 kilometers south-southeast of Moscow, in 1903. His unmarried mother, Maria Y. Kolmogorova, died giving birth to him. Andrey was raised by two of his aunts in Tunoshna (near Yaroslavl) at the estate of his grandfather, a well-to-do nobleman.

Little is known about Andrey's father. He was supposedly named Nikolai Matveevich Kataev and had been an agronomist. Nikolai had been exiled from St. Petersburg to the Yaroslavl province after his participation in the revolutionary movement against the czars. He disappeared in 1919 and he was presumed to have been killed in the Russian Civil War.

Andrey Kolmogorov was educated in his aunt Vera's village school, and his earliest literary efforts and mathematical papers were printed in the school journal "The Swallow of Spring".

In 1910, his aunt adopted him, and they moved to Moscow, where he graduated from high school in 1920. Later that same year, Kolmogorov began to study at the Moscow State University and at the same time Mendeleev Moscow Institute of Chemistry and Technology.

In 1922, Kolmogorov gained international recognition for constructing a Fourier series that diverges almost everywhere. Around this time, he decided to devote his life to mathematics.

In 1925, Kolmogorov graduated from the Moscow State University and began to study under the supervision of Nikolai Luzin. He formed a lifelong friendship with Pavel Alexandrov. (Both were later involved in the political persecution of their common teacher Nikolai Luzin, in the so-called Luzin affair in 1936.) Kolmogorov (together with Aleksandr Khinchin) became interested in probability theory. Also in 1925, he published his work in intuitionistic logic — On the principle of the excluded middle, in which he proved that under a certain interpretation, all statements of classical formal logic can be formulated as those of intuitionistic logic. In 1929, Kolmogorov earned his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree, from the Moscow State University.

Kolmogorov married Anna Dmitrievna Egorova in 1942. He pursued a vigorous teaching routine throughout his life, not only at the university level but also with younger children, as he was actively involved in developing a pedagogy for gifted children (in literature, music, and mathematics). At the Moscow State University, Kolmogorov occupied different positions, including the heads of several departments: probability, statistics, and random processes; mathematical logic. He also served as the Dean of the Moscow State University Department of Mechanics and Mathematics.

In 1971, Kolmogorov joined an oceanographic expedition aboard the research vessel Dmitri Mendeleev. He wrote a number of articles for the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. In his later years, he devoted much of his effort to the mathematical and philosophical relationship between probability theory in abstract and applied areas.

Kolmogorov died in Moscow in 1987, and his remains were buried in the Novodevichy cemetery.

Awards and honours

• Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
• Awarded the Stalin Prize in 1941
• Award the Balzan Prize in 1962
• Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1963
• Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1964.
• Awarde the Lenin Prize in 1965
• Awarded the Wolf Prize in 1980
• Awarded the Lobachevsky Prize in 1986

Андре́й Никола́евич Колмого́ров (25 апреля 1903, Тамбов — 20 октября 1987, Москва) — советский математик, один из крупнейших математиков XX века. Один из основоположников современной теории вероятностей, им получены фундаментальные результаты в топологии, геометрии, математической логике, классической механике, теории турбулентности, теории сложности алгоритмов, теории информации, теории функций, теории тригонометрических рядов, теории меры, теории приближения функций, теории множеств, теории дифференциальных уравнений, теории динамических систем, функциональном анализе и в ряде других областей математики и её приложений. Автор новаторских работ по философии, истории, методологии и преподаванию математики, известны его работы в статистической физике (в частности, уравнение Джонсона — Мела — Аврами — Колмогорова).

Профессор Московского государственного университета (с 1931), доктор физико-математических наук, академик Академии наук СССР (1939). Президент Московского математического общества (ММО) в 1964—1966 и 1974—1985 годах. Герой Социалистического Труда (1963). Лауреат Ленинской и Сталинской премии.

Иностранный член Национальной академии наук США (1967)[8], Лондонского королевского общества (1964)[9], Французской (Парижской) академии наук (1966)[10], член Германской академии естествоиспытателей «Леопольдина» (1959), почётный член Американской академии искусств и наук (1959), иностранный член Венгерской академии наук (1965), Польской академии наук (1956), Нидерландской королевской академии наук (1963), АН ГДР (1977), Академии наук Финляндии (1985), почётный член Румынской академии. Член Лондонского математического общества (1962), Индийского математического общества (1962), иностранный член Американского философского общества (1961). Почётный доктор Парижского университета (1955), Стокгольмского университета (1960), Индийского статистического института (англ.)русск. в Калькутте (1962).

Основатель большой научной школы, среди его учеников: В. И. Арнольд, И. М. Гельфанд, Б. П. Демидович, В. М. Алексеев, Г. И. Баренблатт, А. А. Боровков, А. Г. Витушкин, Б. В. Гнеденко, Р. Л. Добрушин, Е. Б. Дынкин, А. И. Мальцев, М. Д. Миллионщиков, В. С. Михалевич, А. С. Монин, С. М. Никольский, А. М. Обухов, Ю. В. Прохоров, Я. Г. Синай, В. М. Тихомиров, Ю. Н. Тюрин, А. Н. Ширяев, В. А. Успенский, C. В. Фомин, А. М. Яглом и многие другие

Крещён в Варваринской церкви Тамбовской консистории. Крёстный отец А. Н. Колмогорова -- Степан Яковлевич Колмогоров.