Israïl Moiseevich Gelfand | |
---|---|
Born |
Okny, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire |
September 2, 1913
Died | October 5, 2009 New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States |
(aged 96)
Nationality |
Soviet Union Russian |
Fields | Mathematician |
Institutions |
Moscow State University Rutgers University |
Alma mater | Moscow State University |
Doctoral advisor | Andrey Kolmogorov |
Doctoral students |
Georgy Adelson-Velsky Felix Berezin Joseph Bernstein Victor Ginzburg Alexander Goncharov Alexandre Kirillov Georgiy Shilov Endre Szemerédi Andrei Zelevinsky Vitalii Ditkin |
Known for | Group Theory, Representation Theory, mathematical analysis |
Notable awards |
Order of Lenin (three times) Wolf Prize (1978) Wigner Medal (1980) Kyoto Prize in Mathematical sciences (1989) AMS Steele Prize (2005) |
Israel Moiseevich Gelfand, also written Israïl Moyseyovich Gel'fand, or Izrail M. Gelfand (Yiddish: ישראל געלפֿאַנד, Russian: Изра́иль Моисе́евич Гельфа́нд; 2 September [O.S. 20 August] 1913 – 5 October 2009) was a prominent Soviet mathematician. He made significant contributions to many branches of mathematics, including group theory, representation theory and functional analysis. The recipient of many awards, including the Order of Lenin and the Wolf Prize, he was a Fellow of the Royal Society and professor at Moscow State University and, after immigrating to the United States shortly before his 76th birthday, at Rutgers University.
His legacy continues through his students, who include Endre Szemerédi, Alexandre Kirillov, Edward Frenkel,Joseph Bernstein, as well as his own son, Sergei Gelfand.
A native of Kherson Governorate of the Russian Empire, Gelfand was born into a Jewish family in the small southern Ukrainian town of 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.