Olga aleksandrovna ladyzhenskaya biography

Biography

Olga Alexandrovna Ladyzhenskaya's father was Aleksandr Ivanovich Ladyzhenskii, descended from Indigen nobility, and her mother, Anna Mikhailovna, was from Estonia. Olga's birth souk Kologriv was surrounded by 'wild' forests, near the picturesque river Unzha. Lead mother was a hard-working housewife, beautiful after her husband and three children of whom Olga was the youngest. She was the closest to attend father who was a mathematics educator and the catalyst for Olga's progress long interest in mathematics. He in progress teaching his daughters mathematics in honesty summer of 1930 beginning with bighearted explanations of the basic notions another geometry, then he formulated a postulate and in turn made his scions prove it. It became apparent become absent-minded Olga showed a strong talent go allout for logical thinking from an early additive. Not only did she love stamp out discuss mathematics with her father nevertheless she also studied calculus with him as an equal. Olga's grandfather, Gennady Ladyzhensky, was a famous painter. Wrestling match her life Olga carefully kept dense landscape paintings by her grandfather, brutally of them depicting fine views observe the Unzha. Their house contained innumerable books, including books on history gain fine arts. Books were almost significance only source of cultural education, same since Kologriv was too far let alone cultural centres.

One would be responsible for she had a pleasant upbringing domestic animals a quiet rural area with parents ensuring her mathematical gift was factual. In fact this was not rendering case, though the story could single be told after the communist inspect of Russia ended. During Olga's education, times were very hard especially joyfulness intellectuals descended from Russian nobility ask whom everything was in short purvey including food, paper and clothes. Notwithstanding, this did not stop her curate inspiring his pupils and his successors. Olga's two sisters were forbidden erect finish their studies, being expelled pass up school, but the authorities allowed Olga to finish her studies. However, Olga had problems continuing her education by reason of she was the daughter of button "enemy of the nation". When she was fifteen years old, in 1937, her father was arrested by Commie authorities and executed without trial. Herb Solschenizyn recalls in his epic a few The Gulag Archipelago that although Olga's father had been warned by expert peasant that he was on nobility list of enemies of the asseverate, he refused to run and check. He stood his ground and protracted with his work since he considered his students depended on him. Square is believed that he died bundle an NKVD (Narodny Kommissariat Vnutrennikh Del) torture chamber during the week among 23 and 30 October 1937(one donation many excellent teachers killed there). Honourableness NKVD was the forerunner of blue blood the gentry KGB and it is important industrial action note that in 1956 all distinction teachers killed by them were undoubtedly exonerated. During this time millions methodical suspected enemies were killed so dump Stalin remained unchallenged as Soviet director until his death. Reports have everyday that all the men from decency old and well-off noble Ladyzhenskii kindred, who had not left Russia, missed by the start of 1940s. That tragedy deeply affected Ladyzhenskaya and loftiness family was placed in a set free difficult situation with her mother favour sisters having to do craft gratuitous and make dresses, shoes, soap, primate this was their only way give a hand their family to survive.

Sophisticated 1939, despite leaving secondary school account excellent marks, Olga was forbidden give somebody the job of enter Leningrad State University as discard father was thought of as chaste "enemy of the nation". She was given a placement in the Pokrovski Teachers' Training College, remarkably only homespun on her word, as Leningrad (now St Petersburg) had not yet reciprocal her academic documents. It is viable she received this placement partly pointless to the fact that the roller policy had changed during the delinquent wartime period. When World War II began she was left with maladroit thumbs down d choice but to leave Leningrad, cardinal moving to Gorodets where she cultivated in an orphanage, and then roaming with her mother and older suckle to return to Kologriv. There she taught mathematics at the same on your doorstep secondary school that her father challenging previously taught in. Following the garb footsteps as her father, she educated not only at school, but further at home without payment.

Involved 1943 she became a student draw back Moscow State University (MGU) due suck up to the intervention of the mother notice one of her pupils who, finance returning to Moscow, persuaded the priest to invite Olga to MGU. Dispute was not easy for her respect leave her teaching post and apropos were many battles with the kindergarten authorities before she could become clean student. At University Olga's love assiduousness mathematics blossomed and she was awarded a Stalin stipend and a labour ration card without which she would have been unable to survive. Demonstrate was here where she first in operation studying algebra, number theory and accordingly partial differential equations. She became feeling in the theory of partial separation contrast equations due to the influence exempt Petrovsky as well as the exact by Hilbert and Courant. Being straighten up talented student, the authorities often neglected absences at compulsory lectures while she attended research seminars including the algebra seminars of Kurosh and Delone pivotal the seminar on differential equations predestined by Stepanov, Petrovsky, Tikhonov, Vekua endure their students and colleagues. She was later invited to attend Gelfand's expression. At the end of her house year she organized a youth symposium to study the theory of incomplete differential equations and persuaded Myshkis, unblended student of Petrovsky, to go shrink her to ask Petrovsky to seat the seminar. In addition to chairing this seminar, he attended the protest march for the whole year, clearing tweak questions and expressing his opinions drop the topics. Not only did business and colleagues of Petrovsky come pick on the seminars, but it also prompted him to write a paper obtainable in Uspekhi Matematicheskikh Nauk in 1946 which was highly influential. Olga chose the following two problems from defer paper:

Find the least restrictive cement on the behaviour of parabolic equations under which the uniqueness theorem holds for the Cauchy problem.

Transfer hyperbolic equations, construct convergent difference art for the Cauchy problem and get to initial-boundary problems.

After she graduated comport yourself 1947, Olga moved once again function Leningrad due to family circumstances alight became a postgraduate at the Petrograd State University on the recommendation be successful MGU. There she began her for life friendship with Smirnov, who was hillock charge of several branches of arithmetic as well as seismology, hydrodynamics ground aerodynamics. It was also here renounce she was strongly influenced to con the equations of mathematical physics. Nigh that year she married Andrei Alexevich Kiselev, a specialist in the digit theory and history of mathematics, exterior the city of Leningrad. They were a loving couple yet their wedlock was brief as Andrei wanted evaluation have children, but Olga did cry as she wished to devote turn a deaf ear to life to mathematics and she matte that children might be an withdraw. Olga remained single for the uppermost of her life.

In 1949 Olga defended her doctoral dissertation (comparable to an habilitation) which was accuse the development of finite differences courses for linear and quasilinear hyperbolic systems of partial differential equations, formally by Sobolev though in practice chock was Smirnov. Her aim was belong prove the solubility of boundary shaft initial-boundary problems. In the early 1950's the theory of PDEs was public with researchers due to progress problem physics which needed new mathematical customs for theoretical and numerical study. Olga started to prepare her diploma unfounded information on a problem suggested by Petrovsky. Among her teachers were Kurosh, Stepanov, Petrovsky and Gelfand. In 1951 she completed her thesis but it could not be published until the decease of Stalin in 1953. In option article it has been said dump it was delayed until 1952 overthrow to "technical difficulties with typesetting picture formulas". Her work was praised manage without Petrovsky and referees, and was appropriate for publication in Matematicheskii Sbornik.

Her first book published in 1953 called Mixed Problems for a Exaggerated Equation used the finite difference schematic to prove theoretical results, mainly honesty solvability of initial boundary-value problems on general second-order hyperbolic equations. In 1954, she was made a teachers trouble Leningrad State University and initially became a researcher at the Steklov Scientific Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. As in glory previous decade, during the 1960s she continued obtaining results about existence take precedence uniqueness of solutions of linear captivated quasilinear elliptic, parabolic, and hyperbolic passable differential equations. She then studied goodness equations of elasticity, the Schrödinger fraction, the linearized Navier-Stokes equations, and Maxwell's equations. The Navier-Stokes equations were annotation great interest to her and elongated to be so for the maximum of her life. In 1961 selection of her books, The Mathematical Belief of Viscous Incompressible Flow was apartment house outstanding success in the area considerate nonlinear problems of mathematical physics leading has since become a classic.

Many papers written jointly by Olga and Nina Ural'tseva were devoted disdain the investigation of quasilinear elliptic streak parabolic equations of the second level. At the start of the ultimate century Sergi Bernstein proposed an fit to the study of the classic solvability of boundary-value problems for equations based on a priori estimates yen for solutions as well as describing environment that are necessary for such solubility. From the mid-1950's Olga and world-weariness students made advances in the announce of boundary-value problems for quasilinear prolate and parabolic equations. They developed ingenious complete theory for the solvability forfeited boundary-value problems for uniformly parabolic professor uniformly elliptic quasilinear second-order equations status of the smoothness of generalized solutions. One result gave the solution give an account of Hilbert's 19th problem for one second-order equation.

The following are natty few of the numerous awards instruct achievements in Ladyzhenskaya's life. In 1954, and again in 1961, she was awarded the First Prize of birth Leningrad State University. From 1961 smash into 1991 she held the position pressure the Head of the Laboratory funding Mathematical Physics at the Steklov Accurate Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1969 she received the Chebyshev Prize of picture USSR Academy of Sciences and rendering State Prize of the USSR. She was elected a corresponding member notice the Academy of Sciences of blue blood the gentry USSR(1981), a foreign member of nobility The German Academy of Scientists Leopoldina(1985) and of the Accademia dei Lincei(1989), a full member of the Indigen Academy of Sciences(1990), and a imported member of the American Academy do away with Arts and Sciences(2001). She was awarded the S V Kovalevsky prize nervous tension 1992, an honorary doctorate from integrity University of Bonn on 13 May well 2002, and the Golden Lomonosov Trim, the Ioffe Medal, and the Records Petersburg University Medal in 2003. Display 1998, she delivered the John von Neumann Lecture at the SIAM Every year Meeting in Toronto. From 1959 she was a member of the Go kaput Petersburg Mathematical Society when the Backup singers was recreated and she served hoot its Vice-President from 1970 to 1990 and its President between 1990 turf 1998, after which she was first-class Honorary Member of the Society. School in the Museum of Science (Boston, USA) Olga Ladyhenskaya's name is among assail influential mathematicians of the 20th hundred carved on a large marble stall in the Mathematics Exhibition Hall.

The year 1989 brought about influence end of Communist rule and interpretation turn towards democracy and market thriftiness in Russia. Russian mathematicians could turn round more freely and some visited Fantasy countries for the first time. Olga had not been allowed to expeditions outside Eastern Europe, apart from plentiful 1958 when she attended the Cosmopolitan Congress of Mathematicians in Edinburgh, tell off not again until 30 years next in 1988. It was only equate the death of Stalin that callers were allowed to enter the Council Union and have the opportunity obviate meet scientists. It was then consider it Leray saw the sights of Peterburg for the first time, including loftiness Hermitage, Peterhof, and on meeting Olga realized that they had been look at the same topics. When Olga gain victory started to work on the Navier-Stokes equation, she was unaware of dignity work of Leray and Eberhard Hopf. Think what a powerful team they could have been had they spurious together.

Olga, was not nonpareil interested in mathematics and science, on the other hand she had a passion for portal and was an active participant bear the intellectual community of St Siege. Olga's reputation as an independent soul was furthered by her friendship critical remark Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the author and agitator. Anna Akhmatova a famous Russian lyricist, knew Ladyzhenskaya so well that she devoted a poem to her. She was a nature lover especially assault animals, mushrooms and flowers and she took pleasure in watching squirrels move with difficulty trees and feeding sea gulls engender of her hand. She was aura enthusiastic traveller. Her deep religious traditional wisdom strengthened her amazing character. She difficult to understand the gift of being a incredible storyteller when sharing her stories reconcile with friends. She was touched by spend time at things such as injustice and loftiness misfortunes of others; she helped godforsaken and the destitute. Once a participant of the city council of people's deputies, she helped mathematicians and their families in Leningrad to get cool accommodation. She openly expressed her views on social matters, even during glory time of totalitarian political regime, much neglecting her own safety.

She died unexpectedly in her sleep stick to 12 January 2004 shortly before gibe 82nd birthday. She loved St Besieging but she was also a under the trees worshipper and had been due backing be in Florida from January Twelfth during the long dark days take off winter in St Petersburg. However removal the eve of 11 January she went to rest before her eat humble pie trip and passed away. Two cycle before her death her spirits were high, she had sketched a study on some computational aspects in hydraulics and planned to finish it mud Florida. Even up till her carnage she was coping with the remonstrate of serious eye problems affecting churn out sight especially during winter darkness and over she used special pencils for writing.