Vladimir Platonov

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Vladimir Petrovich Platonov (Belarusian: Уладзімір Пятровіч Платонаў, Uladzimir Piatrovic Platonau; Russian: Влади́мир Петро́вич Плато́нов, Vladimir Platonov) (born December 1, 1939) is a Belarusian mathematician.

[edit] Academic career

Platonov received his doctorate from the Belarus State University in 1967. Since 1972 he has been an Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and its President (1987-1993). His interests are algebra, algebraic geometry, and number theory.

A celebrated figure in his native Belarus, he is also a member of the Canadian Mathematical Society and was from 1993 to 2001 a Professor in the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

He is the author, with Andrei Rapinchuk, of Algebraic Groups and Number Theory (Academic Press, 1993).

[edit] Arrest and trial

On November 9, 1999, he was arrested by Waterloo police and charged with attempted murder for an attack on his wife Valentina Platonova in their home. They were later divorced.

On January 17, 2001, he pled guilty to the lesser charge of aggravated assault and was given by judge Robert Reilly a conditional sentence of house arrest, forcing him to remain in his house between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m., until January 16, 2003. He later obtained permission to extend his curfew, to facilitate travel to Toronto for business purposes. On August 31, 2001, he took early retirement from the University of Waterloo.