Misplaced Pages

Eugene Dynkin: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 13:20, 22 February 2007 editSnowolf (talk | contribs)Administrators52,006 editsm re-categorisation per CFD using AWB← Previous edit Latest revision as of 18:05, 28 October 2024 edit undoMonkbot (talk | contribs)Bots3,695,952 editsm Task 20: replace {lang-??} templates with {langx|??} ‹See Tfd› (Replaced 1);Tag: AWB 
(193 intermediate revisions by more than 100 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|Russian mathematician (1924–2014)}}
'''Eugene Borisovich Dynkin''' (born ], ]) is a ]n ]. He has made contributions to the fields of ] and ], especially ] ]s, ]s, and ]es. The ], the ], and ] are named for him.
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Eugene Dynkin
| image = Eugene Dynkin 2003.jpg
| alt = Color photo of Dynkin in his office, circa 2003
| caption = Eugene Dynkin at home in 2003. Photo courtesy of the Dynkin Collection.
| birth_name = Eugene Borisovich Dynkin
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1924|05|11}}
| birth_place = ], ]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|11|14|1924|05|11|df=yes}}
| death_place = ], ], ]
| citizenship = United States
| field = ]
| work_institutions = ]<br />]<br />]
| alma_mater = ]
| doctoral_advisor = ]
| doctoral_students = ]<br />]<br />]<br />]<br />]<br />]<br />]<br />]
| prizes = ] (1993)
}}


'''Eugene Borisovich Dynkin''' ({{langx|ru|link=no|Евгений Борисович Дынкин}}; 11 May 1924 – 14 November 2014) was a ] and American ].<ref name=dyn80/> He made contributions to the fields of ] and ], especially ] ]s, ]s, and ]es. The ], the ], and ] are named after him.
Dynkin lived in ] until 1935, when his father was declared "]" and the family was exiled to ]. At the age of 16, in 1940, despite his father's political difficulties, Dynkin enrolled at ]. He avoided military service in ] because of his poor eyesight, and received his ] in 1945 and his ] in 1948. He became an assistant professor at Moscow, but was not awarded a "chair" until ] because of his political undesirability.


==Biography ==
In 1968 Dynkin was forced to transfer to the ] of the ], where he worked on the theory of ] and ].
Dynkin was born into a ]ish family,<ref>{{MacTutor|id=Dynkin|title=Eugene Borisovich Dynkin}}</ref> living in ] until 1935, when his family was exiled to ].<ref name=pxiii>{{harvtxt|Dynkin|2000|p=xiii}}</ref> Two years later, when Dynkin was 13, his father disappeared in the ].<ref name=dyn80/><ref name=pxiii/>


===Moscow University===
He remained at the Institute until 1976, when he emigrated to the ]. He became a professor at ], where he remains ].
At the age of 16, in 1940, Dynkin was admitted to ]. He avoided military service in ] because of his poor eyesight, and received his ] in 1945 and his ] in 1948. He became an assistant professor at Moscow, but was not awarded a "chair" until 1954 because of his political undesirability. His academic progress was made difficult due to his father's fate, as well as Dynkin's Jewish origin; the special efforts of ], his PhD supervisor, made it possible for Dynkin to progress through graduate school into a teaching position.<ref name=pxiii/>


== External links == ===USSR Academy of Sciences===
In 1968, Dynkin was forced to transfer from the Moscow University to the ] of the ].<ref name=dyn80/> He worked there on the theory of ] and ].


===Cornell===
* {{MathGenealogy |id=17507}}
He remained at the Institute until 1976, when he emigrated to the ].<ref name=dyn80>{{cite journal|mr=1309461|last1=Vvedenskaya|first1=N. D.|last2=Dobrushin|first2=R. L.|last3=Onishchik|first3=A. L.|last4=Uspenskiĭ|first4=V. A.|title=Evgeniĭ Borisovich Dynkin (on the occasion of his seventieth birthday).|journal=Russian Math. Surveys|volume=49|year=1994|issue=4|pages=183&ndash;191|doi=10.1070/rm1994v049n04abeh002411|s2cid=250835688 }}</ref> In 1977, he became a professor at ].<ref name=dyn80/><ref>In {{harvtxt|Dynkin|2000|p=xv}}, Dynkin states "I came to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1977".</ref>
* {{MacTutor|id=Dynkin}}
*
*


===Death===
]
Dynkin died at the ] in ], ], aged 90.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mccme.ru/head/news/dynkin.htm|script-title=ru:Евгений Борисович Дынкин|publisher=Moscow Mathematical Center of Continuous Education|language=ru|access-date=16 November 2014}}</ref><ref></ref> Dynkin was an atheist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dynkincollection.library.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/Dynkin%20and%20Kuznetsov%20July%2025,%201999-Final%20English%20transcript_0.pdf|title=Conversation of Eugene Dynkin with Sergei Kuznetsov, Ithaca, New York, July 25, 1999}}</ref>
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]


==Mathematical work==
]
]
]
Dynkin is considered to be a rare example of a mathematician who made fundamental contributions to two very distinct areas of mathematics: ] and ].<ref>{{harvtxt|Dynkin|2000|p=xi}}</ref> The algebraic period of Dynkin's mathematical work was between 1944 and 1954, though even during this time a probabilistic theme was noticeable.<ref name=p385>{{harvtxt|Dynkin|2000|p=385}}</ref> Indeed, Dynkin's first publication was in 1945, jointly with N. A. Dmitriev, solved a problem on the ]s of ]. This problem was raised at Kolmogorov's seminar on ]s, while both Dynkin and Dmitriev were undergraduates.<ref name=p385/>
]

]
===Lie Theory===
While Dynkin was a student at Moscow University, he attended ]'s seminar on ]s. In 1944, Gelfand asked him to prepare a survey on the structure and classification of ], based on the papers by ] and ]. Dynkin found the papers difficult to read, and in an attempt to better understand the results, he invented the notion of a ] in a ]. He represented the pairwise angles between these simple roots in the form of a ]. In this way he obtained a cleaner exposition of the classification of complex semisimple Lie algebras.<ref>{{harvtxt|Dynkin|2000|p=xiii,7}}</ref> Of Dynkin's 1947 paper "Structure of semisimple Lie algebras", ] wrote: {{blockquote|In this paper, using only elementary mathematics, and starting with almost nothing, Dynkin, brilliantly and elegantly developed the structure and machinery of semisimple Lie algebras. What he accomplished in this paper was to take a hitherto esoteric subject, and to make it into beautiful and powerful mathematics.|]|"Selected papers", p. 363}}

Dynkin's 1952 influential paper "Semisimple subalgebras of semisimple Lie algebras", contained large tables and lists, and studied the subalgebras of the ].

===Probability theory===
Dynkin is considered one of the founders of the modern theory of ]es. The results obtained by Dynkin and other participants of his seminar at Moscow University were summarized in two books. The first of these, "Theory of Markov Processes", was published in 1959, and laid the foundations of the theory.

Dynkin's one-hour talk at the 1962 ] in ], was delivered by Kolmogorov, since prior to his emigration, Dynkin was never permitted to travel to ].<ref>{{harvtxt|Dynkin|2000|p=388}}</ref> This talk was titled "Markov processes and problems in analysis".

==Prizes and awards==
*Prize of the Moscow Mathematical Society, 1951
*Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Fellow, 1962
*American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow, 1978
*National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Member, 1985<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nas.nasonline.org/site/Dir/38308266?pg=vprof&mbr=1002587&returl=http%3A%2F%2Fnas.nasonline.org%2Fsite%2FDir%2F38308266%3Fpg%3Dsrch%26view%3Dbasic&retmk=search_again_link|title=Eugene Dynkin|publisher=NAS}}</ref>
*American Mathematical Society, ] for Total Mathematical Work, 1993
*Moscow Mathematical Society, Honorary Member, 1995
*Doctor Honoris Causa of the Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris 6), 1997
*Doctor of Science (honoris causa) of the ], 2003.<ref>{{cite web|title=News in 2003|url=http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/general/news/2003.html|publisher=Warwick Mathematics Institute|access-date=19 August 2015}}</ref>
*Doctor Honoris Causa of the Independent Moscow University (Russia), 2003
*Fellow of the ], 2012<ref>, retrieved 2012-11-10.</ref>

==Publications==
*{{cite book|title=Theory of Markov Processes|publisher=Prentice-Hall|year=1961}}<ref name="BlumenthalRef">{{cite journal|author=Blumenthal, R. M.|title=Review: ''Theory of Markov processes'' by E. B. Dynkin & ''Die Grundlagen der Theorie der Markoffschen Prozesse'' by E. B. Dykin|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.|volume=68|issue=3|pages=176–178|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1962-68-03/S0002-9904-1962-10734-4/S0002-9904-1962-10734-4.pdf|doi=10.1090/S0002-9904-1962-10734-4|doi-access=free}}</ref>
*{{cite book|title=Die Grundlagen der Theorie der Markoffschen Prozesse|series=Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften, Band 108|publisher=Springer Verlag|year=1961}}<ref name="BlumenthalRef"/>
*{{cite book|title=Markov Processes|series=Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften|publisher=Springer Verlag|year=1965}}
*{{cite book|title=Controlled Markov Processes|series=Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften|publisher=Springer Verlag|year=1979}}
*{{cite book|title=Markov Processes and Related Problems of Analysis, Selected Papers|series=London Math. Soc. Lecture Notes Series, 54|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1982}}
*{{Cite book | last1=Dynkin | first1=Eugene B. | editor1-last=Yushkevich | editor1-first=A. A. | editor2-last=] | editor2-first=G. M. | editor3-last=Onishchik | editor3-first=A. L. | title=Selected papers of E. B. Dynkin with commentary | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D9ZF5O_JH2gC | publisher=] | location=Providence, R.I. | isbn=978-0-8218-1065-1 | mr=1757976 | year=2000}}
*{{cite book|title=Diffusions, Superdiffusions and Partial Differential Equations|publisher=AMS Colloquium Publications|year=2002}}<ref>{{cite journal|author=Dawson, Donald A.|author-link=Donald A. Dawson|title=Review: ''Diffusions, superdiffusions and partial differential equations'' by E. B. Dynkin|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.)|year=2004|volume=41|issue=2|pages=245–253|doi=10.1090/S0273-0979-04-01002-X|doi-access=free}}</ref>
*{{cite book|title=Superdiffusions and Positive Solutions of Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations|publisher=American Mathematical Society|year=2004}}

==See also==
;Algebra:
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]

;Probability:
* ]
* ]
* ]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Scholia}}
*{{MathGenealogy |id=17507}}
*{{MacTutor|id=Dynkin}}
*
*
*
*

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dynkin, Eugene B.}}
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]

Latest revision as of 18:05, 28 October 2024

Russian mathematician (1924–2014)
Eugene Dynkin
Color photo of Dynkin in his office, circa 2003Eugene Dynkin at home in 2003. Photo courtesy of the Dynkin Collection.
BornEugene Borisovich Dynkin
(1924-05-11)11 May 1924
Leningrad, Soviet Union
Died14 November 2014(2014-11-14) (aged 90)
Ithaca, New York, United States
CitizenshipUnited States
Alma materMoscow University
AwardsLeroy P. Steele Prize (1993)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsMoscow University
Central Economic Mathematical Institute
Cornell University
Doctoral advisorAndrey Kolmogorov
Doctoral studentsNicolai V. Krylov
Igor Girsanov
Fridrikh Karpelevich
Stanislav Molchanov
Anatoliy Skorokhod
Nikolai Chentsov
Robert Vanderbei
Ernest Vinberg

Eugene Borisovich Dynkin (Russian: Евгений Борисович Дынкин; 11 May 1924 – 14 November 2014) was a Soviet and American mathematician. He made contributions to the fields of probability and algebra, especially semisimple Lie groups, Lie algebras, and Markov processes. The Dynkin diagram, the Dynkin system, and Dynkin's lemma are named after him.

Biography

Dynkin was born into a Jewish family, living in Leningrad until 1935, when his family was exiled to Kazakhstan. Two years later, when Dynkin was 13, his father disappeared in the Gulag.

Moscow University

At the age of 16, in 1940, Dynkin was admitted to Moscow University. He avoided military service in World War II because of his poor eyesight, and received his MS in 1945 and his PhD in 1948. He became an assistant professor at Moscow, but was not awarded a "chair" until 1954 because of his political undesirability. His academic progress was made difficult due to his father's fate, as well as Dynkin's Jewish origin; the special efforts of Andrey Kolmogorov, his PhD supervisor, made it possible for Dynkin to progress through graduate school into a teaching position.

USSR Academy of Sciences

In 1968, Dynkin was forced to transfer from the Moscow University to the Central Economic Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He worked there on the theory of economic growth and economic equilibrium.

Cornell

He remained at the Institute until 1976, when he emigrated to the United States. In 1977, he became a professor at Cornell University.

Death

Dynkin died at the Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, New York, aged 90. Dynkin was an atheist.

Mathematical work

Eugene Dynkin, 1976

Dynkin is considered to be a rare example of a mathematician who made fundamental contributions to two very distinct areas of mathematics: algebra and probability theory. The algebraic period of Dynkin's mathematical work was between 1944 and 1954, though even during this time a probabilistic theme was noticeable. Indeed, Dynkin's first publication was in 1945, jointly with N. A. Dmitriev, solved a problem on the eigenvalues of stochastic matrices. This problem was raised at Kolmogorov's seminar on Markov chains, while both Dynkin and Dmitriev were undergraduates.

Lie Theory

While Dynkin was a student at Moscow University, he attended Israel Gelfand's seminar on Lie groups. In 1944, Gelfand asked him to prepare a survey on the structure and classification of semisimple Lie groups, based on the papers by Hermann Weyl and Bartel Leendert van der Waerden. Dynkin found the papers difficult to read, and in an attempt to better understand the results, he invented the notion of a "simple root" in a root system. He represented the pairwise angles between these simple roots in the form of a Dynkin diagram. In this way he obtained a cleaner exposition of the classification of complex semisimple Lie algebras. Of Dynkin's 1947 paper "Structure of semisimple Lie algebras", Bertram Kostant wrote:

In this paper, using only elementary mathematics, and starting with almost nothing, Dynkin, brilliantly and elegantly developed the structure and machinery of semisimple Lie algebras. What he accomplished in this paper was to take a hitherto esoteric subject, and to make it into beautiful and powerful mathematics.

— Bertram Kostant, "Selected papers", p. 363

Dynkin's 1952 influential paper "Semisimple subalgebras of semisimple Lie algebras", contained large tables and lists, and studied the subalgebras of the exceptional Lie algebras.

Probability theory

Dynkin is considered one of the founders of the modern theory of Markov processes. The results obtained by Dynkin and other participants of his seminar at Moscow University were summarized in two books. The first of these, "Theory of Markov Processes", was published in 1959, and laid the foundations of the theory.

Dynkin's one-hour talk at the 1962 International Congress of Mathematicians in Stockholm, was delivered by Kolmogorov, since prior to his emigration, Dynkin was never permitted to travel to the West. This talk was titled "Markov processes and problems in analysis".

Prizes and awards

  • Prize of the Moscow Mathematical Society, 1951
  • Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Fellow, 1962
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow, 1978
  • National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Member, 1985
  • American Mathematical Society, Leroy P. Steele Prize for Total Mathematical Work, 1993
  • Moscow Mathematical Society, Honorary Member, 1995
  • Doctor Honoris Causa of the Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris 6), 1997
  • Doctor of Science (honoris causa) of the University of Warwick, 2003.
  • Doctor Honoris Causa of the Independent Moscow University (Russia), 2003
  • Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, 2012

Publications

  • Theory of Markov Processes. Prentice-Hall. 1961.
  • Die Grundlagen der Theorie der Markoffschen Prozesse. Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften, Band 108. Springer Verlag. 1961.
  • Markov Processes. Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften. Springer Verlag. 1965.
  • Controlled Markov Processes. Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften. Springer Verlag. 1979.
  • Markov Processes and Related Problems of Analysis, Selected Papers. London Math. Soc. Lecture Notes Series, 54. Cambridge University Press. 1982.
  • Dynkin, Eugene B. (2000). Yushkevich, A. A.; Seitz, G. M.; Onishchik, A. L. (eds.). Selected papers of E. B. Dynkin with commentary. Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society. ISBN 978-0-8218-1065-1. MR 1757976.
  • Diffusions, Superdiffusions and Partial Differential Equations. AMS Colloquium Publications. 2002.
  • Superdiffusions and Positive Solutions of Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations. American Mathematical Society. 2004.

See also

Algebra
Probability

Notes

  1. ^ Vvedenskaya, N. D.; Dobrushin, R. L.; Onishchik, A. L.; Uspenskiĭ, V. A. (1994). "Evgeniĭ Borisovich Dynkin (on the occasion of his seventieth birthday)". Russian Math. Surveys. 49 (4): 183–191. doi:10.1070/rm1994v049n04abeh002411. MR 1309461. S2CID 250835688.
  2. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Eugene Borisovich Dynkin", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  3. ^ Dynkin (2000, p. xiii)
  4. In Dynkin (2000, p. xv), Dynkin states "I came to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1977".
  5. Евгений Борисович Дынкин (in Russian). Moscow Mathematical Center of Continuous Education. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  6. Cornell Chronicle obit
  7. "Conversation of Eugene Dynkin with Sergei Kuznetsov, Ithaca, New York, July 25, 1999" (PDF).
  8. Dynkin (2000, p. xi)
  9. ^ Dynkin (2000, p. 385)
  10. Dynkin (2000, p. xiii,7)
  11. Dynkin (2000, p. 388)
  12. "Eugene Dynkin". NAS.
  13. "News in 2003". Warwick Mathematics Institute. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  14. List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, retrieved 2012-11-10.
  15. ^ Blumenthal, R. M. "Review: Theory of Markov processes by E. B. Dynkin & Die Grundlagen der Theorie der Markoffschen Prozesse by E. B. Dykin" (PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 68 (3): 176–178. doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1962-10734-4.
  16. Dawson, Donald A. (2004). "Review: Diffusions, superdiffusions and partial differential equations by E. B. Dynkin". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.). 41 (2): 245–253. doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-04-01002-X.

External links

Scholia has a profile for Eugene Dynkin (Q1356831). Categories: