Oleg Viro
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Oleg Viro (Russian: Олег Янович Виро) (b. May 13, 1948, Leningrad, USSR) is a mathematician in the fields of topology and algebraic geometry, most notably real algebraic geometry, tropical geometry and knot theory.
Viro's main invention in algebraic geometry is the "patchworking" technique, which allows real algebraic varieties to be constructed by a sort of "cut and paste" method. Using this technique, Viro was able to complete the isotopy classification of non-singular plane projective curves of degree 7. The patchworking technique was one of the fundamental ideas which motivated the development of tropical geometry. In topology, Viro is most known for his joint work with Vladimir Turaev, in which the Turaev-Viro invariants and related topological quantum field theory notions were introduced.
Viro was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1983 (Warsaw) and the European Congress of Mathematicians in 2000 (Barcelona). He is a recipient of the Goran Gustafsson Prize (1997) from the Swedish government.
Viro studied at the Leningrad State University where he received Ph.D. degree in 1974; his advisor was Vladimir Abramovich Rokhlin. Viro taught from 1973 until 1991 at Leningrad State University. Since 1986 he is a member of the Saint Petersburg Department of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics. In 1992-1997, Viro was a F.B. Jones chair professor in Topology at the University of California, Riverside.
In 1994-2007 he was a professor at Uppsala University, Sweden. On February 8, 2007, Viro and his colleague Burglind Juhl-Jöricke were forced to resign from the university[1]. There are disputed accounts on the resignation. A number of Swedish, European and American mathematicians protested the manner in which the two mathematicians were forced to resign. These protests include an open letter by Lennart Carleson, former president of the International Mathematical Union, a letter by Ari Laptev, current president of the European Mathematical Society, and a letter from Salah Baouendi, Arthur Jaffe, Joel Lebowitz, Elliott H. Lieb and Nicolai Reshetikhin. [2][3]
As of 2007, Viro is a senior researcher at the St. Petersburg Department of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics, and a Visiting Professor at Stony Brook University.
Viro is married to Julia Viro; they have a daughter, Polina, and a son, Ivan.
[edit] References
- ^ Swedish University, Alleging Culture Clash, Forces Out 2 Tenured Foreign Professors, Chronicle of Higher Education, Volume 53, Issue 38, Page A49; May 25, 2007
- ^ Two mathematicians forced to resign at Uppsala University, Sweden, a collection of letters and articles, hosted by the European Mathematical Society.
- ^ Oleg Viro's webpage
- Uppsala University Scandal, from Oleg Viro's webpage.
