Linnik

Iurii Vladimirovich Linnik

Born: 21 Jan 1915 in Belaia Rserkov, Ukraine
Died: 30 June 1972 in Leningrad, USSR

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After studying at secondary school Linnik worked as a laboratory assistant for a year in 1931. Then he entered Leningrad University ( St Petersburg before 1914 and now St Petersburg again) to study mathematics and physics and graduated in 1938, obtaining a doctorate there in 1940.

From 1944 Linnik was professor of mathematics at Leningrad University. He organised the chair of probability theory there and founded the Leningrad school of statistics.

His main research topics were number theory, probability theory and mathematical statistics. He introduced ergodic methods in number theory in his first work. In a 1941 paper he introduced the large sieve method in number theory. In 1950 he introduced the ideas of probability into number theory and introduced the dispersion method in number theory.

Later Linnik made major contributions to probability with his work on limit theorems and was the first to use powerful techniques from analysis in mathematical statistics.

Linnik was President of the Moscow Mathematical Society for many years. He was honoured by many national mathematical societies and was awarded an honorary degree from Paris.

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Iurii Vladimirovich Linnik, Uspekhi matematicheskikh nauk 20 (1965), 229-236.
  3. Iurii Vladimirovich Linnik, Uspekhi matematicheskikh nauk 28 (1973), 210-213.
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JOC/EFR February 1996