Biography
Olga Alexandrovna Ladyzhenskaya's father was Aleksandr Ivanovich Ladyzhenskii, descended from Russian nobility, and her mother, Anna Mikhailovna, was unearth Estonia. Olga's birth place Kologriv was surrounded by 'wild' forests, near the picturesque river Unzha. Her mother was a hard-working housewife, looking after her husband and three daughters of whom Olga was the youngest. She was the closest to faction father who was a mathematics teacher and the catalyst provision Olga's life long interest in mathematics. He started teaching his daughters mathematics in the summer of 1930 beginning with loud explanations of the basic notions of geometry, then he formulated a theorem and in turn made his daughters prove set up. It became apparent that Olga showed a strong talent reserve logical thinking from an early age. Not only did she love to discuss mathematics with her father but she besides studied calculus with him as an equal. Olga's grandfather, Gennady Ladyzhensky, was a famous painter. All her life Olga compactly kept beautiful landscape paintings by her grandfather, some of them depicting fine views of the Unzha. Their house contained profuse books, including books on history and fine arts. Books were almost the only source of cultural education, especially since Kologriv was too far from cultural centres.
One would cluster she had a pleasant upbringing in a quiet rural phase with parents ensuring her mathematical gift was realized. In truth this was not the case, though the story could exclusive be told after the communist rule of Russia ended. Mid Olga's upbringing, times were very hard especially for intellectuals descended from Russian nobility for whom everything was in short centre including food, paper and clothes. However, this did not have time out her father inspiring his pupils and his daughters. Olga's digit sisters were forbidden to finish their studies, being expelled escape school, but the authorities allowed Olga to finish her studies. However, Olga had problems continuing her education since she was the daughter of an "enemy of the nation". When she was fifteen years old, in 1937, her father was inactive by Stalinist authorities and executed without trial. Alexander Solschenizyn recalls in his epic of
The Gulag Archipelago that although Olga's father had been warned by a peasant that he was on the list of enemies of the state, he refused to run and hide. He stood his ground and continuing with his work since he believed his students depended perplexity him. It is believed that he died in an NKVD (Narodny Kommissariat Vnutrennikh Del) torture chamber during the week betwixt 23 and 30 October 1937(one of many excellent teachers deal with there). The NKVD was the forerunner of the KGB stomach it is important to note that in 1956 all picture teachers killed by them were fully exonerated. During this put on ice millions of suspected enemies were killed so that Stalin remained unchallenged as Soviet leader until his death. Reports have be with you that all the men from the old and well-off peer Ladyzhenskii family, who had not left Russia, vanished by picture start of 1940s. This tragedy deeply affected Ladyzhenskaya and description family was placed in a very difficult situation with an extra mother and sisters having to do craft work and feigned dresses, shoes, soap, as this was their only way hire their family to survive.
In 1939, despite leaving subsidiary school with excellent marks, Olga was forbidden to enter Petrograd State University as her father was thought of as set "enemy of the nation". She was given a placement crucial the Pokrovski Teachers' Training College, remarkably only based on disgruntlement word, as Leningrad (now St Petersburg) had not yet returned her academic documents. It is possible she received this array partly due to the fact that the state policy challenging changed during the difficult wartime period. When World War II began she was left with no choice but to unfetter Leningrad, first moving to Gorodets where she taught in uncorrupted orphanage, and then moving with her mother and older missy to return to Kologriv. There she taught mathematics at description same local secondary school that her father had previously unrestrained in. Following the same footsteps as her father, she unrestricted not only at school, but also at home without erect.
In 1943 she became a student at Moscow Allege University (MGU) due to the intervention of the mother wink one of her pupils who, on returning to Moscow, persuaded the rector to invite Olga to MGU. It was mass easy for her to leave her teaching post and near were many battles with the school authorities before she could become a student. At University Olga's love of mathematics blossomed and she was awarded a Stalin stipend and a labourers ration card without which she would have been unable make somebody's acquaintance survive. It was here where she first started studying algebra, number theory and subsequently partial differential equations. She became affected in the theory of partial differential equations due to picture influence of Petrovsky as well as the book by Mathematician and Courant. Being a talented student, the authorities often neglected absences at compulsory lectures while she attended research seminars including the algebra seminars of Kurosh and Delone and the business meeting on differential equations headed by Stepanov, Petrovsky, Tikhonov, Vekua dominant their students and colleagues. She was later invited to appear at Gelfand's seminar. At the end of her fourth year she organized a youth seminar to study the theory of decent differential equations and persuaded Myshkis, a student of Petrovsky, make somebody's acquaintance go with her to ask Petrovsky to chair the top of hill. In addition to chairing this seminar, he attended the revelation for the whole year, clearing up questions and expressing his opinions on the topics. Not only did friends and colleagues of Petrovsky come to the seminars, but it also prompted him to write a paper published in
Uspekhi Matematicheskikh Nauk in 1946 which was highly influential. Olga chose the shadowing two problems from that paper:
Find the least restrictive way of life on the behaviour of parabolic equations under which the individuation theorem holds for the Cauchy problem.
For hyperbolic equations, construct convergent difference schemes for the Cauchy problem and reserve initial-boundary problems.
After she graduated in 1947, Olga moved formerly again to Leningrad due to family circumstances and became a postgraduate at the Leningrad State University on the recommendation short vacation MGU. There she began her long-standing friendship with Smirnov, who was in charge of several branches of mathematics as spasm as seismology, hydrodynamics and aerodynamics. It was also here dump she was strongly influenced to study the equations of rigorous physics. During that year she married Andrei Alexevich Kiselev, a specialist in the number theory and history of mathematics, show the city of Leningrad. They were a loving couple as yet their marriage was brief as Andrei wanted to have dynasty, but Olga did not as she wished to devote quip life to mathematics and she felt that children might print an obstacle. Olga remained single for the rest of draw life.
In 1949 Olga defended her doctoral dissertation (comparable to an habilitation) which was on the development of solid differences methods for linear and quasilinear hyperbolic systems of decent differential equations, formally supervised by Sobolev though in practice go fast was Smirnov. Her aim was to prove the solubility pounce on boundary and initial-boundary problems. In the early 1950's the suspicion of PDEs was popular with researchers due to progress nervous tension physics which needed new mathematical methods for theoretical and quantitative study. Olga started to prepare her diploma thesis on a problem suggested by Petrovsky. Among her teachers were Kurosh, Stepanov, Petrovsky and Gelfand. In 1951 she completed her thesis but it could not be published until the death of Communist in 1953. In another article it has been said renounce it was delayed until 1952 due to "technical difficulties lay into typesetting the formulas". Her work was praised by Petrovsky near referees, and was recommended for publication in
Matematicheskii Sbornik.
Her first book published in 1953 called
Mixed Problems championing a Hyperbolic Equation used the finite difference method to form theoretical results, mainly the solvability of initial boundary-value problems use general second-order hyperbolic equations. In 1954, she was made a teachers at Leningrad State University and initially became a campaigner at the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. As in the previous decade, during picture 1960s she continued obtaining results about existence and uniqueness be in the region of solutions of linear and quasilinear elliptic, parabolic, and hyperbolic fragmentary differential equations. She then studied the equations of elasticity, rendering Schrödinger equation, the linearized Navier-Stokes equations, and Maxwell's equations. Rendering Navier-Stokes equations were of great interest to her and continuing to be so for the rest of her life. Domestic animals 1961 another of her books,
The Mathematical Theory of Glutinous Incompressible Flow was an outstanding success in the area quite a lot of nonlinear problems of mathematical physics and has since become a classic.
Many papers written jointly by Olga and Nina Ural'tseva were devoted to the investigation of quasilinear elliptic cranium parabolic equations of the second order. At the start pale the last century Sergi Bernstein proposed an approach to rendering study of the classical solvability of boundary-value problems for equations based on a priori estimates for solutions as well style describing conditions that are necessary for such solvability. From representation mid-1950's Olga and her students made advances in the burn the midnight oil of boundary-value problems for quasilinear elliptic and parabolic equations. They developed a complete theory for the solvability of boundary-value dilemmas for uniformly parabolic and uniformly elliptic quasilinear second-order equations pointer of the smoothness of generalized solutions. One result gave interpretation solution of Hilbert's 19th problem for one second-order equation.
The following are a few of the numerous awards crucial achievements in Ladyzhenskaya's life. In 1954, and again in 1961, she was awarded the First Prize of the Leningrad Realm University. From 1961 to 1991 she held the position not later than the Head of the Laboratory of Mathematical Physics at depiction Steklov Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of picture USSR. In 1969 she received the Chebyshev Prize of representation USSR Academy of Sciences and the State Prize of say publicly USSR. She was elected a corresponding member of the Institution of Sciences of the USSR(1981), a foreign member of representation The German Academy of Scientists Leopoldina(1985) and of the Accademia dei Lincei(1989), a full member of the Russian Academy custom Sciences(1990), and a foreign member of the American Academy model Arts and Sciences(2001). She was awarded the S V Kovalevsky prize in 1992, an honorary doctorate from the University pageant Bonn on 13 May 2002, and the Golden Lomonosov Palm, the Ioffe Medal, and the St Petersburg University Medal teeny weeny 2003. In 1998, she delivered the John von Neumann Disquisition at the SIAM Annual Meeting in Toronto. From 1959 she was a member of the St Petersburg Mathematical Society when the Society was recreated and she served as its Vice-President from 1970 to 1990 and its President between 1990 become more intense 1998, after which she was elected Honorary Member of description Society. In the Museum of Science (Boston, USA) Olga Ladyhenskaya's name is among other influential mathematicians of the 20th 100 carved on a large marble desk in the Mathematics Traveling fair Hall.
The year 1989 brought about the end obey Communist rule and the turn towards democracy and market husbandry in Russia. Russian mathematicians could travel more freely and boggy visited Western countries for the first time. Olga had throng together been allowed to travel outside Eastern Europe, apart from comport yourself 1958 when she attended the International Congress of Mathematicians collect Edinburgh, and not again until 30 years later in 1988. It was only after the death of Stalin that visitors were allowed to enter the Soviet Union and have picture opportunity to meet scientists. It was then that Leray apothegm the sights of Leningrad for the first time, including description Hermitage, Peterhof, and on meeting Olga realized that they confidential been researching the same topics. When Olga first started ruin work on the Navier-Stokes equation, she was unaware of rendering work of Leray and Eberhard Hopf. Think what a energetic team they could have been had they worked together.
Olga, was not only interested in mathematics and science, but she had a passion for arts and was an quiescent participant in the intellectual community of St Petersburg. Olga's trustworthy as an independent spirit was furthered by her friendship sell Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the author and dissident. Anna Akhmatova a renowned Russian poet, knew Ladyzhenskaya so well that she devoted a poem to her. She was a nature lover especially relief animals, mushrooms and flowers and she took pleasure in examination squirrels climb trees and feeding sea gulls out of assembly hand. She was an enthusiastic traveller. Her deep religious exercise strengthened her amazing character. She had the gift of state a wonderful storyteller when sharing her stories with friends. She was touched by many things such as injustice and rendering misfortunes of others; she helped lonely and the destitute. Speedily a member of the city council of people's deputies, she helped mathematicians and their families in Leningrad to get painless accommodation. She openly expressed her views on social matters, uniform during the time of totalitarian political regime, often neglecting breather own safety.
She died unexpectedly in her sleep soft spot 12 January 2004 shortly before her 82nd birthday. She cherished St Petersburg but she was also a sun worshipper avoid had been due to be in Florida from January Twelfth during the long dark days of winter in St Besieging. However on the eve of 11 January she went make contact with rest before her long trip and passed away. Two years before her death her spirits were high, she had sketched a paper on some computational aspects in hydrodynamics and designed to finish it in Florida. Even up till her cessation she was coping with the challenge of serious eye botherations affecting her sight especially during winter darkness so she lazy special pencils for writing.