Israel Gelfand
| Israïl Moiseevich Gelfand |
|
| Born |
September 2, 1913(1913-09-02)
Krasni Okny, Odessa Oblast, Ukraine, Russian Empire |
| Died |
October 5, 2009(2009-10-05) (aged 96)
New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA |
| Nationality |
Soviet Union/Russia |
| Fields |
Mathematician |
| Institutions |
Moscow State University,
Rutgers University |
| Alma mater |
Moscow State University |
| Doctoral advisor |
Andrey Kolmogorov |
| Doctoral students |
Felix Berezin
Joseph Bernstein
Alexander Goncharov
Alexandre Kirillov
Georgiy Shilov
Endre Szemerédi
Andrei Zelevinsky |
| Known for |
Group Theory, Representation Theory, mathematical analysis |
| Notable awards |
Order of Lenin (three times)
Wolf Prize (1978)
AMS Steele Prize (2005) |
Israel Moiseevich Gelfand, also written Israïl Moyseyovich Gel'fand, or Izrail M. Gelfand (Yiddish: ישראל געלפֿאַנד, Russian: Изра́иль Моисе́евич Ге́льфанд; 2 September [O.S. 20 August] 1913—5 October 2009) was a Soviet mathematician who made major contributions to many branches of mathematics, including group theory, representation theory and functional analysis. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Order of Lenin and the Wolf Prize, he was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a lifelong academic, serving decades as a professor at Moscow State University and, after immigrating to the United States shortly before his 76th birthday, at the Busch Campus of New Jersey's Rutgers University.
He is known for having educated and inspired generations of students through his legendary seminar at Moscow State University. His legacy continues in the mathematicians who were his students, such as Endre Szemerédi, Alexandre Kirillov, Joseph Bernstein as well as his own son, Sergei Gelfand.
Early years
A native of Kherson gubernia of the Russian Empire, Gelfand was born into a Jewish family in the small town of Okny (subsequently, Krasni Okny). According to his own account, Gelfand was expelled from high school because his father had been a mill owner. Bypassing both high school and college, he proceeded to postgraduate study at Moscow State University, where his advisor was the preeminent mathematician Andrei Kolmogorov. He nevertheless managed to attend lectures at the University and began postgraduate study at the age of 19.[1]
Work
Gelfand is known for many developments including:
Influence outside of mathematics
The Gelfand–Tsetlin basis (also in the common spelling Zetlin) is a widely-used tool in theoretical physics and the result of Gelfand's work on the representation theory of the unitary group and Lie groups in general.
Gelfand also published works on biology and medicine.[3] For a long time he took an interest in cell biology and organized a research seminar on the subject.[4][5]
He worked extensively in mathematics education, particularly with correspondence education. In 1994, he was awarded a MacArthur fellowship for this work.
Family
Gelfand was married to Zorya Shapiro, and their two sons, Sergei and Vladimir both live in the United States. A third son, Aleksandr, died of leukemia. Following the divorce from his first wife, Gelfand married his second wife, Tatiana. Gelfand and Tatiana became the parents of a daughter, Tatiana. The family, all in the U.S., also includes four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.[6] The memories about I.Gelfand are collected at the special site[7] handled by his family.
Honors and awards
Gelfand held several honorary degrees and was awarded the Order of Lenin three times for his research. In 1977 he was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. He won the Wolf Prize in 1978, Kyoto Prize in 1989 and MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1994. He held the presidency of the Moscow Mathematical Society between 1968 and 1970, and was elected a foreign member of the U.S. National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Irish Academy, the American Mathematical Society and the London Mathematical Society.
In an October 2003 article in The New York Times, written on the occasion of his 90th birthday, Gelfand is described as a scholar who is considered "among the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century",[8] having exerted a tremendous influence on the field both through his own works and those of his students.
Death
Israel Gelfand died at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital near his home in Highland Park, New Jersey. He was less than five weeks past his 96th birthday. His death was first reported on the blog of his former collaborator Andrei Zelevinsky[9] and confirmed a few hours later by an obituary in the Russian online newspaper Polit.ru.[10]
Publications
- Gelfand, I. M. (1998), Lectures on linear algebra, Courier Dover Publications, ISBN 9780486660820, http://books.google.com/books?id=1ebLTz_MtUcC
- Gelfand, I. M.; Fomin, Sergei V. (1963), Silverman, Richard A., ed., Calculus of variations, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall Inc., ISBN 978-0-486-41448-5, MR0160139, http://books.google.com/books?id=YkFLGQeGRw4C
- Gelfand, I.; Raikov, D.; Shilov, G. (1964) [1960], Commutative normed rings, Translated from the Russian, with a supplementary chapter, New York: Chelsea Publishing Co., ISBN 9780821820223, MR0205105, http://books.google.com/books?id=K_CIW-oau88C
- Gel'fand, I. M.; Shilov, G. E. (1964) [1958], Generalized functions. Vol. I: Properties and operations, Translated by Eugene Saletan, Boston, MA: Academic Press, ISBN 978-0-12-279501-5, MR0166596, http://books.google.com/books?id=QoWBSgAACAAJ
- Gelfand, I. M.; Shilov, G. E. (1968) [1958], Generalized functions. Vol. 2. Spaces of fundamental and generalized functions, Translated from the Russian by Morris D. Friedman, Amiel Feinstein and Christian P. Peltzer, Boston, MA: Academic Press, ISBN 978-0-12-279502-2, MR0230128, http://books.google.com/books?id=9mEPAQAAMAAJ
- Gelfand, I. M.; Shilov, G. E. (1967) [1958], Generalized functions. Vol. 3: Theory of differential equations, Translated from the Russian by Meinhard E. Mayer, Boston, MA: Academic Press, MR0217416
- Gelfand, I. M.; Vilenkin, N. Ya. (1964) [1961], Generalized functions. Vol. 4: Applications of harmonic analysis, Translated by Amiel Feinstein, Boston, MA: Academic Press, ISBN 978-0-12-279504-6, MR0173945, http://books.google.com/books?id=dd35YQEACAAJ
- Gelfand, I. M.; Graev, M. I.; Vilenkin, N. Ya. (1966) [1962], Generalized functions. Vol. 5: Integral geometry and representation theory, Translated from the Russian by Eugene Saletan, Boston, MA: Academic Press, ISBN 978-0-12-279505-3, MR0207913
- Gelfand, I. M.; Graev, M. I.; Pyatetskii-Shapiro, I. I. (1969), Representation theory and automorphic functions, Translated from the Russian by K. A. Hirsch, Philadelphia, Pa.: W. B. Saunders Co., ISBN 978-0-12-279506-0, MR0233772, http://books.google.com/books?id=_p5qAAAAMAAJ
- Gelfand, Izrail M. (1987), Gindikin, S. G.; Guillemin, V. W.; Kirillov, A. A. et al., eds., Collected papers. Vol. I, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-540-13619-4, MR929821, http://books.google.com/books?id=yJofAQAAIAAJ
- Gelfand, Izrail M. (1988), Gindikin, S. G.; Guillemin, V. W.; Kirillov, A. A. et al., eds., Collected papers. Vol. II, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-540-19035-6, MR929821, http://books.google.com/books?id=Y5wfAQAAIAAJ
- Gelfand, Izrail M. (1989), Gindikin, S. G.; Guillemin, V. W.; Kirillov, A. A. et al., eds., Collected papers. Vol. III, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-540-19399-9, MR0997939, http://books.google.com/books?id=OunuAAAAMAAJ
- Gelfand, I. M.; Kapranov, M.M.; Zelevinsky, A.V. (1994), Discriminants, resultants, and multidimensional determinants, Boston: Birkhäuser, ISBN 978-0-8176-3660-9
- Gelfand, I. M.; Gindikin, S. G.; Graev, M. I. (2003), Selected topics in integral geometry, Translations of Mathematical Monographs, 220, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, ISBN 978-0-8218-2932-5, MR2000133
- Borovik, Alexandre V.; Gelfand, I. M.; White, Neil (2003), Coxeter matroids, Progress in Mathematics, 216, Boston, MA: Birkhäuser Boston, ISBN 978-0-8176-3764-4, MR1989953, http://books.google.com/books?id=-4jcuw8en5wC
See also
References
Notes
- ^ The Daily Telegraph 27 Oct 09
- ^ Gel'fand, I.M.; n.Ya.Vilenkin (1964), Generalized Functions, Academic Press, pp. 375, ISBN 0-12-279504-0
- ^ http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Гельфанд,_Израиль_Моисеевич
- ^ V.I. Agol, Notes about I.M. Gelfand’s Seminar, Russian Journal Developmental Biology, Volume 39, Number 6, 367-368.
- ^ L.V. Beloussov, Short notes about Gelfand’s Seminar, Russian Journal Developmental Biology, Volume 39, Number 6, 369-370.
- ^ Chang, Kenneth. "Israel Gelfand, Math Giant, Dies at 96", The New York Times (October 7, 2009)
- ^ http://israelmgelfand.com/ site dedicated to Israel M. Gelfand
- ^ Kochman, Marilyn. "In Person: An Equation for Success", The New York Times (October 5, 2003)
- ^ (Russian) "Скончался И.М. Гельфанд" ("I.M. Gelfand has died"), accessed 2009-10-06
- ^ "5 октября ушел из жизни выдающийся математик Израиль Моисеевич Гельфанд. "Эпоха Гельфанда ушла, но она продолжится в существующих поколениях" {"Renowned Mathematician Israil Moiseyevich Gelfand Departed on October 5. Gelfand's era has gone, but it shall continue in succeeding generations"}
Sources
External links
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