home / Our children/ Lavrentyev Mikhail Alekseevich: biography, scientific works, achievements and interesting facts. Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentiev Excerpt characterizing Lavrentiev, Mikhail Alekseevich

Lavrentyev Mikhail Alekseevich: biography, scientific works, achievements and interesting facts. Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentiev Excerpt characterizing Lavrentiev, Mikhail Alekseevich

M.A. Lavrentiev graduated from Kazan University in 1922. He belonged to the galaxy of students of Academician N.N. Luzin, which amounted to in the 30-40s. core of the Moscow mathematical school...

Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentiev was born on November 6 (19), 1900 in Kazan in the family of a professor at Kazan University.

M.A. Lavrentiev graduated from Kazan University in 1922. He belonged to the galaxy of students of Academician N.N. Luzin, which amounted to in the 30-40s. core of the Moscow mathematical school (P.S. Aleksandrov, N.K. Bari, L.V. Keldysh, A.N. Kolmogorov, L.A. Lyusternik, D.E. Menshov, P.S. Novikov, etc.) .

In 1931-1939. M.A. Lavrentiev taught at Moscow University. From 1934 to 1939 worked at the Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. V.A. Steklova.

In 1934 M.A. Lavrentyev received a doctorate degree technical sciences, and in 1935 - Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

Works by M.A. Lavrentiev in the 30-40s. were associated with the development of function theory. Together with M.V. Keldysh, he studied the problems of Dirichlet, Neumann, Carleman, and proposed approaches to the theory of conformal mappings. M.A. Lavrentiev proved the existence theorem for solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations in hydromechanics.

A fundamental report on the theory of quasiconformal mappings was given by M.A. Lavrentiev at the Third All-Union Mathematical Congress in 1956.

Monographs by M.A. Lavrentiev “Methods of the theory of functions of a complex variable” (together with B.V. Shabat) and “Fundamentals of the calculus of variations” (together with L.A. Lyusternik) went through several editions and became classics in this field of mathematics.

In 1939-1949 M.A. Lavrentiev headed the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. In 1939, he was elected a full member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and in 1946 - a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (mathematics). In 1946 and 1949 M.A. Lavrentyev was awarded the State (at that time Stalin) Prize of the USSR.

From the very beginning of work on the creation of domestic computers, M.A. Lavrentyev showed serious interest in them. “It is possible that S.A. Lebedev was pushed to the final decision to develop a digital computer by M.A. Lavrentiev,” writes B.N. Malinovsky in the book “The History of Computer Technology in Persons. - This opinion was expressed by V.M. Glushkov, S.G. Crane (who programmed the first task for MESM together with S. Avramenko) and O.A. Bogomolets." M.A. Lavrentyev actively participated in the discussion of the fundamentals of constructing MESM at a seminar organized by S.A. Lebedev in 1949, together with other mathematicians of the Kiev school B.V. Gnedenko, A.Yu. Ishlinsky, A.A. At the end of 1951, M.A. Lavrentyev took part in the work of the commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences under the leadership of M.V. Keldysh, which tested the MESM and accepted it into operation.

In 1949, knowing about the development of MESM, started in Kyiv by S.A. Lebedev, and concerned that the USSR does not attach due importance to the creation of computers for solving scientific problems, M.A. Lavrentiev wrote a letter addressed to I.V. Stalin. The result was unexpected for M.A. himself. Lavrentieva. At the beginning of 1950, he was appointed director of the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences (ITM and VT), which was tasked with creating a high-speed electronic calculating machine(BESM). For its development M.A. Lavrentiev invited S.A. Lebedev, who still lived in Kyiv, to the position of head of the ITM and VT laboratory (part-time).

In the decree of the USSR Government, which determined the development of two computers in the USSR, the following were named responsible: from the USSR Academy of Sciences - M.A. Lavrentiev and chief designer(BESM machines) S.A. Lebedev, from the Ministry of Mechanical Engineering and Instrument Making - M.A. Lesechko and chief designer (of the Strela machine) Yu.Ya. Bazilevsky.

Academician V.A. Melnikov, in those years a young specialist who participated in the development of BESM, later recalled: “I was very lucky with both my first teacher and my first director. The first teacher who gave us lessons in computer development was S.A. Lebedev. And the first the director who created the conditions that ensured the creation of BESM was M.A. Lavrentyev.

In 1970 S.A. Lebedev in a short article “At the Cradle of the First Computer” dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the birth of M.A. Lavrentyev, wrote: “In the first post-war years, I worked in Kyiv. I had just been elected academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, and near the city, in Feofaniya, a laboratory was created where the first Soviet electronic computer was destined to be born. Times were difficult, the country restored the economy destroyed by the war, every little thing was a problem, and it is unknown whether the first-born of Soviet computer technology (MESM) would have appeared in Feofania if we had not had a kind patron - Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentiev, who was then vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. I never cease to be surprised and admire the indomitable energy with which Lavrentyev defended and pushed through his ideas. In my opinion, it is difficult to find a person who, having met him, would not be infected by his enthusiasm.

...Soon Mikhail Alekseevich was appointed director of the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Science of the USSR Academy of Sciences. I was transferred to Moscow, and a new stage began in our joint work on the creation of large digital electronic computers. When the machine (BESM) was ready, it was in no way inferior to the latest American models and was a true triumph of the ideas of its creators."

In 1953 M.A. Lavrentyev was elected vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and S.A. became the director of ITM and VT. Lebedev.

After moving to Moscow M.A. Lavrentyev devoted a lot of energy to teaching at Moscow University and the newly created Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT). At MIPT M.A. Lavrentyev trained a large group of talented researchers, which became the basis of the team of the Institute of Hydrodynamics of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. M.A. Lavrentyev was the director of this institute.

In 1957 M.A. Lavrentiev became the organizer of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Under his leadership, Akademgorodok was created in Novosibirsk, which already became a powerful scientific center in the 60s. Through the efforts of the organizers of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences M.A. Lavrentieva, S.L. Soboleva, S.A. Khristianovich, a world-class school of mathematics and mechanics was founded in Novosibirsk, in which outstanding scientists worked: I.N. Vekua, N.N. Yanenko, L.V. Ovsyanikov, M.M. Lavrentiev, S.K. Godunov, Yu.L. Ershov, A.S. Alekseev, Yu.I. Shokin, Yu.E. Nesterikhin, S.T. Vaskov, who raised their students and created their own scientific schools. The organizers of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences invited such wonderful scientists as A.A. Lyapunov, I.A. Poletaev, A.I. Maltsev, L.V. Kantorovich, A.P. Ershov, G.I. Marchuk.

On the initiative of M.A. Lavrentiev, a physics and mathematics boarding school was created at the newly organized Novosibirsk University. The most talented schoolchildren were invited to participate in it through the system of Siberian Olympiads. And after graduating from this school and university, many of them became part of the core scientific staff of the institutes of Akademgorodok and other scientific centers of Siberia.

Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentiev died on October 15, 1980. The central avenue of the Novosibirsk Academgorodok and the Institute of Hydrodynamics of the SB RAS bear his name.

I was lucky enough to live in the Novosibirsk Academgorodok almost from its very foundation until the present day, that is, for more than fifty years. Here, in Siberia, on the shores of the man-made Ob Sea, essentially all of my conscious life. And I consider myself very lucky...

The decision to create the Academy Town was made by the USSR Government in May 1957; construction began in 1958, and already next year the first buildings of scientific research institutes and residential buildings appeared here (the Institute of Hydrodynamics was the first to be commissioned). In subsequent years, over 20 more institutes, residential areas and Novosibirsk State University were built. During the Soviet period (1959-1991), Akademgorodok was considered a prestigious place to live.

Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Siberian branch Russian Academy Sciences (SB RAS) was founded in 1957 by academicians M. A. Lavrentiev, S. L. Sobolev, S. A. Khristianovich. Scientific centers of the SB RAS are located in Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Yakutsk, Ulan-Ude, Kemerovo, Tyumen, Omsk; separate institutes operate in Barnaul, Chita, Kyzyl. The SB RAS consists of 77 research institutions. Approximately half of the scientific potential is concentrated in Novosibirsk. Total number scientific works The number of employees of the SB RAS is about 9,000 people, of which 125 are members of the Academy, 1,926 doctors of science and 4,988 candidates of science, 1,952 employees without an academic degree.

Security officers or scientists?

How did it all begin? There are different versions here. One thing is certain: the idea of creating a “sharashka without barbed wire” in Siberia (as Akademgorodok was sometimes called before) was so atypical for Soviet times that at first glance it looked like a grandiose adventure. But only at first glance.

The fact is that almost all scientific life The USSR at the end of the fifties was concentrated in Moscow and Leningrad. But then nuclear weapons already existed, and these cities on the American military maps were designated as strategic targets, which in the event of war they were going to wipe out from the face of the earth first. This, of course, was well understood by the members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee and our generals. Therefore, an urgent question arose: how to protect at least part of the scientific centers working on the military-industrial complex in the event of a nuclear strike?

They say that the idea to “hide” science in the remote Siberian taiga originated with Lavrentiy Beria.

But even if this is so, it is hardly worth considering him as the author of the idea of Academy Town. The methods of Lavrentiy Palych are painfully well known. He would have found ways to send scientists to Siberia without much expense or effort. But apparently he didn’t have time. By 1958, the political landscape in the USSR had changed greatly, repressive methods were branded at the party congress, and Beria himself was no longer alive.

Stalin's times are irrevocably over, but the problem of a nuclear strike remains. And it became obvious that it was not the security officers, but the scientists who should lay the foundations of the Siberian scientific center. But as? After all, nothing like this existed in the country at that time. Fortunately for Akademgorodok, among the famous scientists of that time there was a man who became its founding father - Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentyev. Believe me, these are not big words, not routine pathos. Any resident of Academy Town will tell you the same thing. Lavrentyev was loved here and still is.

Academician Lavrentiev

Academician Lavrentyev was an amazing person. Precisely personality. For fellow scientists, he is, first of all, one of the greatest mathematicians of our time, the author of many fundamental works and the famous “Lavrentiev theorem,” which is included in all hydrodynamics textbooks. However, Mikhail Alekseevich managed to influence not only theoretical basis world science. By some unthinkable coincidence, he managed to have a hand in the launch of several key projects, which later largely determined the future of our country.

Let's start with the fact that Lavrentiev was at the very origins of the creation of the legendary Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), which later turned into the main forge of scientific personnel for the Soviet defense industry. At the dawn of the “atomic era,” he held one of the key positions in KB-11 (as the Arzamas-16 Nuclear Center was previously called).

You can also remember his role in creating the prototype of the current computer - the computer. How many of us know about this? Here is what academician Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev wrote, under whose leadership the first working model of a domestic “electronic computer” was launched in 1950:

“Times were difficult, the country was rebuilding its economy destroyed by the war, every little thing was a problem. And it is unknown whether the first-born of Soviet computer technology would have appeared if we had not had a kind patron - Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentyev, who was then vice-president of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. I still never cease to be surprised and admire the indomitable energy with which Lavrentiev defended and pushed through his ideas. In my opinion, it is difficult to find a person who, having met him, would not be infected by his enthusiasm.”

In order to eliminate all the obstacles preventing the creation of a computer, Lavrentyev even dared to write to Stalin. Agree, a risky step for those times. But the result was surprising: instead of sending Lavrentyev to Siberia, the author of the letter was appointed director of the new Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Science of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Yes, Lavrentiev managed to do a lot. But still, his favorite brainchild was our Academy Town. The idea is to build a city of Scientists from scratch, where science and education will feed each other, and everyday life will allow scientists not to be distracted from the search for new discoveries, which has long haunted Mikhail Alekseevich. Although it probably seemed almost impossible at times. And suddenly, at the end of the fifties, a ghostly chance to realize it appeared.

Houses among the taiga

Khrushchev liked the idea of hiding a powerful scientific center working for the military-industrial complex and inaccessible to enemy atomic bombs in the depths of Siberia. Formally, this was the starting point for the emergence of Academy Town.

Lavrentyev, whose ability to infect other people with his ideas we have already spoken about, quickly found like-minded people here too. Two of the greatest scientists of that time - academicians Sergei Lvovich Sobolev and Sergei Alekseevich Khristianovich - agreed to voluntarily go to Siberia.

There was also a fourth academician in this company - Nikita Nikolaevich Moiseev, but for some reason he changed his mind at the last moment about going to Siberia.

At first, the Siberian Academy Town was going to be built in the foothills of Altai, not far from the famous resort of Belokurikha.

This place had many advantages: the wonderful beauty of nature, cleanest air, heavenly microclimate, distance from the bustle of big cities. But there were also serious shortcomings. There was no sighting nearby railway, no normal airport, no decent roads.

Moreover, the list of arguments “against” was not limited to this. An entire city had to be built, but where in the Altai foothills was the construction industry, powerful sources of electricity or reliable means of communication? Of course, all of the above could have been created, but imagine the enormous amount of time and money such construction would require. It was necessary to look for a simpler option. And soon he was found.

At the time of the birth of Academgorodok, just thirty kilometers from the rapidly developing Novosibirsk, the construction of the Obskaya hydroelectric power station was just finishing. And there already were access roads, factories producing building materials, the necessary equipment and even construction prisoners (“the zero cycle” on large construction projects was then carried out, as a rule, with the help of slave labor) - in a word, everything that was needed for the construction of Academy Town. And Novosibirsk just lay at the intersection of all possible ways, and there was already some academic science in it.

In short, the site for Akademgorodok was soon approved, and in the middle of a rather wild, dense pine forest, the first buildings appeared - a hut for the family of Academician Lavrentiev and six more houses for young scientists who dared to exchange Moscow laboratories for the delights of the Siberian taiga.

From the memoirs of M.A. Lavrentiev: We received from the builders a beautiful, comfortable and at the same time modest city. Its main beauty is the forest, which is both around and inside the city. Builders complained that trees were in the way, but even full turns of tower cranes were prohibited to avoid damaging the trees.

Town phenomenon

Later, for the hut in which Lavrentyev and his wife settled, he received a scolding from Khrushchev, who grumbled: “They built a hut there, and Academician Lavrentyev settled in it. They say that he covered the windows with pillows in cold and snowstorms. This is how the academician began his life on Siberian soil! This is commendable, it is a heroic act, but it is unlikely that it was necessary.”

Nikita Sergeevich correctly noted: decent academicians did not behave like that then (and even more so now). The General Secretary did not understand one thing: Lavrentiev, in fact, was not carrying out a party task, but was building the city of his dreams. And therefore he could not do otherwise. Although, as Mikhail Alekseevich himself recalled at that time: “... living conditions were not easy, especially in winter. They felled dead wood, sawed and chopped wood, lit stoves, and carried water in buckets. Since there were no shops nearby, they created a commune to organize food and purchased everything they needed collectively.”

Academgorodok did not begin with a decision of the CPSU Central Committee, not with multimillion-dollar appropriations and foundation pits, but with a small hut in the Golden Valley. (This is how one of the academician’s students christened the place where they lived at that time; everyone liked the name and it stuck). From that very hut where the first settlers celebrated holidays together, sang songs, and on Sundays, when the dining room was not open, Lavrentiev’s wife fed lunch to the bachelor scientists.

Of course, Academy Town in its heyday had many advantages. And yet, in my opinion, its uniqueness is not so much the streets and buildings in the middle of the taiga or the well-provided standard of living for those times. And even (I’ll express a seditious thought) scientific discoveries, which happened here with enviable regularity... This is all just external signs. The main thing is the wonderful atmosphere in which we lived for many years, those human relations, which took shape here from the first days of the appearance of scientists in the Golden Valley.

Naturally, much more was important. For example, how wisely and quickly the Academy Town was built. Or the fact that it was here that academic dreamers were able to implement a completely new model of interaction between science and education: lectures at the university were given by famous scientists from research institutes of the town, and students from the second or third year ended up in research laboratories, where, together with the masters were developing real-life scientific problems. As a result, after receiving a diploma from NSU, they already had a good idea of what awaited them next; they did not start their scientific career from scratch. And it gave great results!

It is also worth recalling that Academy Town, through the implementation of scientists’ developments, recouped the costs of its construction in less than ten years. A phenomenal result, but I repeat: any material achievements pale in comparison with the cheerful and joyful atmosphere that was felt here, especially in the first years. If everything were different, it is unlikely that the new stronghold of science would be strikingly different from the rest of the rather dull Soviet reality. And it’s unlikely that my friends and I would invariably raise a toast on the red days of the calendar to our common destiny, which allowed us to be in the right place at the right time.

Force of gravity

Yes, we lived in a wonderful place. Firstly, almost all residents of Akademgorodok had most interesting work, to which they could devote themselves entirely. Secondly, almost all the “Gorodkovites” were family friends, and often one could see a note on the doors of apartments: “Please do not call - the child is sleeping. The key is under the mat." Thirdly, living conditions here were much better than, say, in Novosibirsk itself, where, just like throughout our “country of widespread shortages,” store shelves were empty. The housing issue was also resolved much more simply in Akademgorodok. It even happened that bachelors who received a separate room “gave” it to their newlywed friends, and themselves went back to the hostel. They knew that the wait for a new housing order would not be long.

All this, of course, greatly delighted the residents of Akademgorodok, but greatly irritated the party authorities of the Novosibirsk region. However, they could not change anything. Even at the nascent stage of the science city, Academician Lavrentiev managed to demand complete autonomy from local authorities: the Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences was controlled and financed directly from Moscow. They even say that it was not Lavrentyev who went to see the first secretary of the Novosibirsk Regional Committee of the CPSU, but the latter to him. I can imagine the reaction to these visits by the “first man of the region,” who had to endure such “humiliation”!

It is not surprising that the local nomenklatura did not like the idea of Academgorodok, it was inconvenient, and at the slightest opportunity they made it felt. Mikhail Alekseevich recalled how he had to fight to knock out the loads intended for construction. One day a completely comical incident occurred. Four ambulances were sent from Moscow to Akademgorodok, but they disappeared somewhere. And a couple of months later, according to Lavrentyev, someone suddenly noticed that the deputy chairmen of the Novosibirsk Economic Council were driving unusual cars. It turned out that the ambulances were repainted, the crosses were erased, and they were adapted to carry the authorities.

Nevertheless, the machinations of party functionaries did not seriously affect the development of Akademgorodok, and in the sixties it was already making waves throughout the country. Who hasn’t come here to see this miracle with their own eyes in the middle of the Siberian taiga! Feature films about nuclear physicists were shot here, and from here the science fiction writers the Strugatsky brothers, by their own admission, took away the image of the sorcerer’s institute, which we now know from the story “Monday Begins on Saturday.”

And what concerts were given in Akademgorodok by world-famous musicians (for example, Svyatoslav Richter)! By the way, it was here that jazz festivals were held for the first time in the country. The House of Culture "Academy" and the House of Scientists, along with the famous cafe "Molodezhnoe", which was located on Gorky Street in Moscow, are considered by many experts to be the birthplace of Soviet jazz. Was it really only jazz that was born in Akademgorodok?!

Signs of life

One can talk endlessly about how Academy Town came into being, what amazing people and events are included in its history. Well, take, for example, the largest scientific developments for which he became famous throughout the world. How many articles do you need to write to get even a very, very rough idea of them? A bunch of.

We have something to remember... Leonid Vitalievich Kantorovich, the only mathematician who became a Nobel laureate in 1978, worked in Akademgorodok. Here was the legendary club “Under the Integral”, which became one of the bright symbols of Khrushchev’s thaw, and the scientific and production association “Fakel”, which was closed during the time of Brezhnev, which made a splash throughout the country. Can you list everything?

One thing is upsetting: the brightest pages of the life of Academy Town are far in the past. What are the reasons? Of course, in the devastating events that the country experienced at the end of the last century. But not only. Even before this, Academy Town began to rapidly “age.” By the end of the seventies, the children of those who came here to devote their lives had grown up scientific knowledge. Then it suddenly became clear: the overwhelming majority of the new generation does not want (or cannot) gnaw on the granite of science. And there was simply no other work in Akademgorodok. Perestroika, the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the dictatorship of the market further aggravated the situation and brought it to a critical point. The status of the scientist has fallen to the lowest levels, and the majority of talented scientists, especially young ones, have left to look for their “city of the Sun” outside our long-suffering Motherland.

At one time, Akademgorodok almost even turned into a “dormitory area for new Russians.”

Wealthy, short-haired people with gold chains around their necks began to actively buy several apartments located nearby, unite them and, after a luxurious European-quality renovation, move their wives and children into these mansions. However, the wives soon rebelled: they were mortally bored in the “intellectual village”, where at that time there was not even a single decent nightclub. Life beckoned them big city. So the process of turning Akademgorodok into a “dormitory area for new Russians,” thank God, first subsided and then stopped altogether.

Another encouraging sign of the times: some scientists who went abroad have begun to return. Having traveled around the world, they realized: it is better to live here, and it is also better to do science here. The only problem is money, because the salaries that even world-famous scientists receive here cannot be called normal money.

However, as they say, the need for invention is tricky, especially if this need is with a scientific degree. Long gone are the days when our professors, receiving the salaries of local laboratory assistants abroad, were incredibly happy. Now every serious scientist knows what he is worth and is ready to be an “intellectual guest worker” for some time, but for very decent money.

Our professor will go somewhere to Paris, Lisbon, Tokyo or Chicago for five or six months, earn decent money to live there, and then return to Akademgorodok, to his home institute and do science there until the money runs out. Then history repeats itself: the scientist comes to an agreement with the director of the institute, packs his suitcase and goes “to the waste fishery” (this term has already taken root in scientific circles).

As for me, having traveled almost half the world, I have once and for all come to the conclusion that for me personally, our Academy Town, in spite of everything, was and remains the best place on earth.

The greatest influence on Lavrentiev at Kazan University were professors of mathematics E.A. Bolotov, D.N. Zeiliger and N.N. Parfentiev. Already here Lavrentiev’s noticeable passion for mathematics began to show. He taught at Kazan University and worked as a laboratory assistant in the Mechanical Room.

In 1921, he and his family moved to Moscow and transferred to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, and graduated from Moscow State University in 1922.

While still a student in 1921, Lavrentiev began teaching at the Moscow Higher Technical School (now Bauman Moscow State Technical University), and continued teaching until 1929.

In Moscow, Lavrentiev entered “Lusitania” - this was the comic name of the mathematical school created around 1914 by the outstanding Russian mathematician N.N. Luzin (historically, Lusitania is a province of the Roman Empire, on the territory of modern Spain and Portugal, named after the ancient tribe that inhabited it - the Lusitani ). Luzin's scientific interests related to set theory and function theory, which were intensively developing at that time. Characteristic feature Luzina as a scientist and teacher was collective form conducting research that contributes to setting fundamentally new problems and finding new approaches to old problems. A galaxy of outstanding domestic mathematicians came out of the school (I.I. Privalov, V.V. Stepanov, P.S. Aleksandrov, M.Ya. Suslin, D.E. Menshov, A.Ya. Khinchin, S.S. Kovner, P.S. Uryson, V.N. Veniaminov, A.N. Kolmogorov, V.V. Nemytsky, L.V. Keldysh (elder sister of M.V. Keldysh), P.S. Novikov, N.K. Bari and others), Lavrentiev is one of them. In 1923–1926, he was a graduate student of Luzin, engaged in research on set theory, topology (the science of general properties mathematical spaces that are preserved under continuous transformations), differential equations. First published work (on French) Contribution a la theorie des ensembles homeomorphes (On the study of homeomorphic sets) was published in France, 1924. His next seven works, completed in the period 1924–1927, were also published in French in Western European (mainly French) scientific publications - a common practice of Soviet scientists at that time. Since 1928 he published mainly in domestic publications.

In 1927 he defended his dissertation for the degree of candidate of physical and mathematical sciences and was sent to France for six months for scientific improvement. Communication with prominent French mathematicians Denjoy, Hadamard, Montel, lectures by Goursat, Borel and Julia, participation in seminars on the theory of functions became a good school for him.

Upon returning to Moscow (late 1927), he was elected private associate professor at Moscow State University and a member of the Moscow Mathematical Society. I started teaching a course at Moscow State University on the theory of conformal mappings (transformations of space that preserve the magnitude of angles). Since 1927, he took up the problem of approximation of functions of a complex variable, important for applications (more simple functions- polynomials), the beginning of his research on the theory of quasiconformal (close to conformal) mappings dates back to the same time, which was explained by the urgent needs of aerodynamics at increased speeds: the incompressible fluid model used at low flight speeds ceased to be valid.

In 1928, as part of the Soviet delegation, he participated in the International Mathematical Congress in Bologna (Italy) with a report on quasiconformal mappings.

In 1929 he became the head of the department and received the title of professor at the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology. In the same year he began working as a senior engineer at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after. Professor N.E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI). He was attracted here by the head of the theoretical department of TsAGI S.A. Chaplygin. These were the years of rapid flowering of aircraft construction and the formation of the theory of flight, research into the aerodynamics of wings, which affected the further topics of Lavrentiev’s research work. It was from this period, which lasted six years, that his work began directly in the field of applied mathematics. He attracted his students to TsAGI, and then his colleagues M.V. Keldysh and L.I. Sedov. The interests of Lavrentiev and his group included such sections of hydro-aerodynamics as the theory of an oscillating wing, the movement of a wing under the surface of a heavy liquid, the impact of a solid body on water, the construction of a flow around an arc of a given shape, and a number of others. The results obtained were subsequently used, in particular, in solving the flutter problem. Was found general method solving the problem of flow around thin airfoils of arbitrary shape; It is shown that a wing in the shape of a circular arc has the greatest lifting force. Applied problems stimulated further research on the theory of variational principles of conformal mappings. In 1935, Lavrentiev published (partially co-authored) 16 articles and abstracts, a monograph in 2 volumes, and a training course program.

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In 1931 he became a professor at Moscow State University, connecting his life with the university for many years.

Without defending a dissertation (based on the totality of scientific works), Lavrentyev was awarded academic degree Doctor of Technical Sciences, and in 1935 – Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. At the same time he became a senior research fellow at the Mathematical Institute. V.A. Steklov of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he worked for more than 25 years. Lavrentiev’s influence on this scientific institution is still noticeable. From 1934 he headed the department of theory of functions and trained a large number of students who later became outstanding scientists, among them Academician A.Yu. Ishlinsky, Academician of the Academy pedagogical sciences A.I. Markushevich, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, academician of the Georgian Academy of Sciences A.V. Bitsadze. By the mid-1930s, Lavrentiev became the generally recognized head of the Soviet school of theory of functions of a complex variable.

In 1939, he was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (USSR Academy of Sciences) and director of the Mathematical Institute of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences, and moved to Kyiv. Here he studied the theory of functions of a complex variable and its applications. In Ukraine, Lavrentiev’s research related to the mechanics of explosion was begun, and a scientific school was created. Taught at Kiev University, professor (1939–1941 and 1945–1949), from 1941 to 1945 – head of the Mathematics Department of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.

During the Second World War, together with the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Lavrentiev was evacuated to the Urals and Ufa. Continued research in the field of explosions. Assuming that at high temperatures materials behave like viscous liquids, he developed the hydrodynamic theory of cumulation (cumulative effect - an increase in the penetrating ability of a projectile, discovered in the second half of the 19th century, with its special device, such that when a projectile collides with an obstacle, a high-speed (cumulative) ) a jet of powder gases and melt products of a metal shell, burning through an obstacle). The results of the research, including the most important one - the depth of penetration of the jet into the barrier, are given in the article The shaped charge and the principles of its operation, 1957. He successfully solved a number of military engineering problems, participated in the creation of a domestic shaped charge projectile. When studying the characteristics of cumulation, the phenomenon of explosion welding of metals was discovered, which was widely used in the future.

Lavrentiev's attention was also attracted by the theory of long waves on the surface of a liquid under the action of gravity. The obtained first proof of the existence of an exact solution to the equations of propagation of a soliton (solitary surface wave) is given in the article To the theory of long waves, 1943, then in the article To the theories of long waves (in Ukrainian), 1947.

In February 1945 he returned from evacuation to Kyiv and became vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. He remained in this post until 1948.

In 1946 he was elected academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. For research in the field of the theory of functions of a complex variable and the creation of the theory of quasiconformal mappings, he was awarded the Stalin (State) Prize. In 1949 he was awarded the second Stalin Prize for his theory of cumulative jets.

In connection with the problem of sinking captured sea vessels, he studied the effects of an underwater explosion. He conducted an experimental test of the theory he developed at the academic base of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in the Kyiv suburb of Feofaniya. The formation of cumulative jets was discovered, which are formed when a cavity from the explosion products collapses in water. Published the work Experience of calculating the influence of the depth of immersion of a bomb in a liquid on its destructive power, 1946. The idea of using cord charges based on “wet gunpowder” dates back to the same period, which turned out to be a suitable means for laying trenches, for cutting metals, organizing directed explosions and etc.

Since 1948 he has been working at Moscow State University again. During this period, a new higher education institution was created on the basis of Moscow State University. educational institution– Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), which played an important role in training highly qualified personnel for new branches of science and technology that emerged in the post-war years. At this institute, Lavrentiev founded a specialization in the theory of explosions and headed the department of physics of fast processes (1955–1958). Was engaged in directed explosions. The results are presented in the work On directional throwing of soil using explosive, 1960.

Researched equations mixed type, describing gas flows in regions of transition through the speed of sound, proposed using the model equation instead of the well-known Tricomi equation linear equation mixed type. In 1950 he published an article (co-authored with A.V. Bitsadze) On the problem of equations of mixed type.

In 1947, he made a report at a session of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the Ways of Development of Soviet Mathematics (published in 1948). Particular attention was paid to computational mathematics and engineering. He called for the speedy creation of an institute of computer technology.

In 1950 he was elected director of the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Science (established in 1948 in Moscow), whose chief designer was S.A. Lebedev, a specialist in the field of electrical engineering and computer technology, later an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. At the Institute, in the shortest possible time, the first samples of Soviet electronic calculating machines - the ancestors of domestic computer technology - were created. He headed this institute until 1953.

From 1951 to 1953 he was Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences and contributed to this activity great importance, paid exceptional attention to the development of the main directions of science of that time, its specific connection with practice.

From 1953 to 1955 he worked together with the head of the Soviet nuclear project, Academician I.V. Kurchatov, and was deputy chief designer of the Ministry of Medium Engineering. In 1958 he was one of the first to receive the Lenin Prize (for special topics).

In 1955 he was elected to the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and from 1955 to 1957 he was again Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In 1957, together with academicians S.A. Khristianovich and S.L. Sobolev, he put forward the idea of creating scientific complexes in Siberia, in places of particularly intensive development of industry and agriculture. This idea was supported by a number of prominent scientists. On May 18, 1957, a government decision was made to create the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and Lavrentiev became its chairman. He headed the Siberian branch until 1975 (then he was Honorary Chairman). The Siberian branch has become widely known throughout the world, has established itself not only with a series of fundamental developments, but also with their application to the most vital tasks of the development of Siberia, Far East and the European part of the country.

The Institute of Hydrodynamics (now named after M.A. Lavrentyev, IGiL) was the first to start working in the Siberian branch, the organizer and director of which was Lavrentyev. He has the choice organizational structure institute, his scientific issues, giving them both search and applied character, determining an appropriate combination basic research with national economic tasks. He headed the Institute until 1976.

With the support of Lavrentiev, B.V. Voitsekhovsky, V.V. Mitrofanov, M.E. Topchiyan and others, the theory of spin detonation was developed at the Institute (when propagating in a round pipe, the front of a detonation wave of this kind describes a helical line on the walls of the pipe).

In his work On One Principle of Creating Traction Force for Movement (together with M.M. Lavrentiev, 1962), he proposed a mechanical model (a flexible rod in a channel with rigid walls) to study the movement of snakes, fish, etc. He studied the dynamics of a nuclear explosion cloud and developed the theory of self-similar motion of turbulent vortex rings. Constructed new models of separated flow around bodies with an aft circulation zone. He was also interested in other problems: waves on water and extinguishing them with rain; the emergence and development of giant sea waves (tsunamis), fighting forest fires, preventing river pollution, construction ecology, advantages of various electronic computing systems, organization scientific research, teaching methods in higher and secondary schools, etc.

With the active participation of Lavrentiev, Novosibirsk State University was created (it was organized in 1958, the first academic year began in September 1959 with a lecture by Academician S.L. Sobolev). The basis for student practice was scientific institutes Novosibirsk Academic Town. He lectured at Novosibirsk University, university professor 1959–1966.

In the Novosibirsk Academgorodok, first a specialized physics and mathematics boarding school, and then a chemical boarding school, and a club for young technicians were created. Official opening the country's first specialized physics and mathematics boarding school (FMS) at Novosibirsk state university took place in January 1963.

Received the title of honorary citizen of Novosibirsk (1970).

Since 1976 he worked in Moscow again. In 1976–1980 Chairman of the USSR National Committee for Theoretical and Applied Mathematics.

He often visited abroad, where he gave lectures and studied the state of mathematics and mechanics. He was elected a member in 1962–1966, and vice-president of the executive committee of the International Mathematical Union in 1966–1970. Elected as a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Poland, Finland, the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (GDR), the Academy of Sciences of Liopoldina (GDR), the French Academy of Sciences, a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, as well as a member of a number of other international and national scientific organizations.

He has written a number of monographs and textbooks.

For outstanding services in the development of science and organization of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (1967). Awarded five Orders of Lenin (1953, 1956, 1960, 1967, 1975), the Order of the October Revolution (1970), four Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1945, 1948, 1953, 1954), the Order Patriotic War II degree (1944), Order of the Legion of Honor, Commander degree (the highest award of France, 1971), medals.

530 works of Lavrentiev are known (scientific and journalistic articles, reviews, reviews, monographs, textbooks, essays on memoirs, etc.) Many of his students became outstanding scientists.

Works: Fundamentals of the calculus of variations. In 2 parts. M. – Leningrad, ONTI, 1935 (co-author: L.A. Lyusternik); Course of calculus of variations. M. - L., ONTI, 1938 (co-author: L.A. Lyusternik); Conformal mappings with applications to some problems in mechanics. M. – L., GTTI, 1946; Variational method in boundary value problems for systems of equations of elliptic type. M., Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1962; Methods of the theory of functions of a complex variable, 4th ed., M., 1973 (co-author: B.V. Shabat); Problems of hydrodynamics and their mathematical models. 2nd ed., M., 1977 (co-author: B.V. Shabat); Selected works. Mathematics and mechanics. M., Nauka, 1990.

The great scientist Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentyev died October 15, 1980 in Moscow. He was buried in the Southern Cemetery of the city of Novosibirsk.

Awards of Mikhail Lavrentiev

Hero of Socialist Labor (04/29/1967) - for outstanding services in the development of science and organization of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences

Five Orders of Lenin (09/19/1953; 06/01/1956; 11/16/1960; 04/29/1967; 09/17/1975)

Order of the October Revolution (11/18/1970)

Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd class (01.10.1944)

Four Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (06/10/1945; 01/23/1948; 01/04/1954; 04/20/1956)

Order of the Legion of Honor, Commander degree - 1971 - the highest award in France

Order "Cyril and Methodius" 1st degree (Bulgaria, 1969)

Lenin Prize (1958) - for work on the creation of an atomic artillery charge

Stalin Prize of the first degree (1946) - for the development of a variational-geometric method for solving nonlinear problems in the theory of partial differential equations, which is important for hydromechanics and aeromechanics, set out in the articles: “On some properties of univalent functions with applications to the theory of jets”, “On the theory of quasi-conformal mappings”, “On some approximate formulas in the Dirichlet problem”, “On the theory of long waves” (1938-1943)

Stalin Prize, first degree (1949) - for theoretical research in hydrodynamics (1948)

Big Golden medal named after M.V. Lomonosov - 1977 - for outstanding achievements in the field of mathematics and mechanics

Honorary citizen of the city of Novosibirsk.

Membership in scientific societies

Since 1957 full member of the Academy of Sciences of Czechoslovakia
Since 1966, honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus
Since 1969, corresponding member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin
Since 1971 foreign member of the Paris Academy of Sciences
In 1966-1970, vice-president of the International Mathematical Union

Main Works of Mikhail Lavrentiev

Fundamentals of the calculus of variations... / M. Lavrentyev, L. Lyusternik. - M.-L.: Onti, 1935;

Course in calculus of variations / M. A. Lavrentiev, L. A. Lyusternik. - M.-L.: GONTI, 1938;

Variational method in boundary value problems for systems of equations of elliptic type. M., 1962;

Methods of the theory of functions of a complex variable. 3rd ed. M., 1965 (co-author);

Problems of hydrodynamics and their mathematical models. - M., 1977;

Science, technical progress. Personnel: Sat. articles and speeches. Novosibirsk, 1980;

Siberia will grow. M., 1980.

Memory of Mikhail Lavrentiev

The following were named in honor of Lavrentiev:

Academician Lavrentyev Street in Dolgoprudny (Moscow region) and a street in Kazan;

Academician Lavrentiev Avenue in Novosibirsk, where his bronze bust is installed;

Institute of Hydrodynamics named after. M. A. Lavrentiev SB RAS;

Physics and Mathematics School at NSU, NSU Auditorium and Lyceum No. 130;

Research vessel "Akademik Lavrentiev";

Mountain peaks in the Pamirs and Altai.

A memorial plaque was installed on the building of the Institute of Hydrodynamics in honor of M. A. Lavrentiev. The Minor Planet Center assigned the name Lavrentina to planet No. 7322 (in honor of academicians Mikhail Alekseevich and Mikhail Mikhailovich Lavrentiev).

Family of Mikhail Lavrentiev

Father - Alexey Lavrentievich Lavrentiev, professor of mechanics, first at Kazan, then at Moscow University, (1876-1953).
Mother - Anisia Mikhailovna (1876-1953).

Wife - Vera Evgenievna (marriage since 1928) (nee Danchakova, 1902-1995), biologist.
Son - Mikhail (1932-2010), academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, mathematician.
Daughter - Vera.

15.10.1980

Lavrentyev Mikhail Alekseevich

Russian Mathematician

Hero of Socialist Labor

Mikhail Lavrentyev was born on November 19, 1900 in the city of Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan. The boy's father, Alexey Lavrentievich, was a professor of mechanics, first at Kazan and then at Moscow University. The guy received his secondary education at the Kazan Commercial School. After graduation, he entered Kazan University.

In 1921, the Lavrentiev family moved to Moscow. A year later, Mikhail Alekseevich, having transferred from Kazan University, graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Lomonosov Moscow State University. At the capital's university, Lavrentiev was part of the “Lusitania”: the mathematical school of Professor Nikolai Nikolaevich Luzin. A characteristic feature of Nikolai Luzin as a scientist and teacher was his constant desire to pose fundamentally new problems and the ability to find new approaches to old problems.

During these years, under the leadership of Luzin, the Moscow mathematical school was formed, from which a whole galaxy of outstanding Soviet mathematicians emerged, including Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentiev. From 1923 to 1926, Lavrentyev acted as a graduate student of Luzin on the theory of functions of a real variable. While still a student, Mikhail Aleseevich began teaching at the Moscow Higher Technical School.

After defending his dissertation in 1927, Lavrentyev was sent to France for six months for scientific improvement. There Mikhail communicated with prominent French mathematicians: Arnaud Denjoy, Jacques Hadamard, Paul Montel. Listened to lectures by Edouard Goursat, Emile Borel and Gaston Julia. Participated in seminars on function theory. During his stay in Paris, Lavrentiev published two works on the theory of functions in the Reports of the French Academy of Sciences.

At the end of 1927, Lavrentiev became a private assistant professor at Moscow State University and a member of the Moscow Mathematical Society. At that time, Mikhail Alekseevich read the first course on the theory of conformal mappings at Moscow State University. The beginning of his research on the theory of quasiconformal mappings dates back to the same time. A year later, as part of a delegation, he participated in the International Mathematical Congress in Bologna, Italy. At the age of about 29, Lavrentyev became the head of the department and received the title of professor at the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology.

In 1934, Mikhail Alekseevich was awarded the academic degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences, and in 1935, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. At the same time, he was invited to become a senior researcher at the Vladimir Steklov Mathematical Institute. He worked at the institute for more than 25 years, where he headed a department in which complex research was carried out in the field of function theory. In addition, he trained a large number of outstanding scientists, serving as the generally recognized head of the national school of function theory.

From this period begins another period of Lavrentiev’s life and work: the period of his direct influence on the development of mathematics in various scientific centers Soviet Union. At this time, he was invited to Georgia to give lectures and supervise graduate students.

In 1939, Lavrentiev was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and director of the Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. In Ukraine, famous research in the field of explosion was started, a school was created, which is still working fruitfully. From 1941 to 1945, Mikhail Alekseevich was the head of the Mathematics Department of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.

During the terrible years of the Great Patriotic War, when all the forces of the people and science were devoted to the front, Mikhail Alekseevich continued research in the field of explosions, successfully solving a number of military engineering problems. In 1945, Lavrentyev became vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. He held this post, which marked recognition of his scientific and organizational talent, for three years. In 1946, Lavrentyev was elected an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences and was awarded the State Prize for his research in the field of the theory of functions of a complex variable and the creation of the theory of quasiconformal mappings. In 1949 he was awarded the second State Prize for the theory of cumulative jets he created.

At the end of the 1940s, Mikhail Alekseevich gave a report on “Ways of development of Soviet mathematics” at a session of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It has a special focus on computational mathematics and engineering. The scientist called for the speedy creation of an institute of computer technology. In 1950, he was elected director of the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Science, where the first samples of electronic calculating machines were created in the shortest possible time: the founders of modern computer technology. Lavrentiev headed this institute until 1953.

At the same time, until 1953, Lavrentiev was academician-secretary of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He attached great importance to this activity, paying exceptional attention to the development of the general directions of science of that time, its connection, moreover, quite concretely, with the most urgent needs of the country. From 1953 to 1955 he worked together with the famous Russian academician Kurchatov.

At the end of spring 1957, a decision was made to create the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and Academician Mikhail Lavrentyev was elected its chairman. Thanks to him, first specialized physics and mathematics, and then chemical boarding schools were created on the academic campus for children with design inclinations: a club for young technicians. With the active participation of Lavrentiev, Novosibirsk University was also created.

Lavrentiev was often abroad, where he gave lectures and studied the state of mathematics and mechanics. Mikhail Alekseevich was a member from 1962 to 1966, and from 1966 to 1970 he was elected vice-president of the executive committee of the International Mathematical Union. In addition, he was a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Poland, the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, the Liopoldina Academy of Sciences, the French Academy of Sciences, a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, as well as a member of a number of international and national scientific organizations.

In 1967, for outstanding services in the development of science and organization of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Mikhail Alekseevich was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. In 1971, Lavrentyev was awarded France's highest award: the Order of the Legion of Honor, Commander degree. In 1977, for outstanding achievements in the field of mathematics and mechanics, he was awarded a large gold medal named after Mikhail Lomonosov.

LAVRENTIEV, MIKHAIL ALEXEEVICH(1900–1980), Soviet scientist in the field of mathematics and mechanics, organizer of science.

Born on November 6 (19 new style), 1900 in Kazan in the family of a mathematics teacher at a technical educational institution (later a professor of mechanics, first at Kazan, then at Moscow University). In 1910–1911, together with his father, he was in Göttingen (Germany), where he went to school. He received his secondary education at the Kazan Commercial School, and after graduating he entered Kazan University (1918). The greatest influence on Lavrentiev at Kazan University were professors of mathematics E.A. Bolotov, D.N. Zeiliger and N.N. Parfentiev. Already here Lavrentiev’s noticeable passion for mathematics began to show. He taught at Kazan University and worked as a laboratory assistant in the Mechanical Room.

In 1921, he and his family moved to Moscow and transferred to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, and graduated from Moscow State University in 1922.

While still a student in 1921, Lavrentiev began teaching at the Moscow Higher Technical School (now Bauman Moscow State Technical University), and continued teaching until 1929.

In Moscow, Lavrentiev entered the “Lusitania” - this was the comic name of the mathematical school created around 1914 by the outstanding Russian mathematician N.N. Luzin (historically, Lusitania is a province of the Roman Empire, on the territory of modern Spain and Portugal, named after the ancient tribe that inhabited it - the Lusitanians). Luzin's scientific interests related to set theory and function theory, which were intensively developing at that time. A characteristic feature of Luzin as a scientist and teacher was the collective form of research, which contributed to the formulation of fundamentally new problems and the finding of new approaches to old problems. A galaxy of outstanding domestic mathematicians came out of the school (I.I. Privalov, V.V. Stepanov, P.S. Aleksandrov, M.Ya. Suslin, D.E. Menshov, A.Ya. Khinchin, S.S. Kovner, P.S. Uryson, V.N. Veniaminov, A.N. Kolmogorov, V.V. Nemytsky, L.V. Keldysh (elder sister of M.V. Keldysh), P.S. Novikov, N.K. Bari and others), Lavrentiev is one of them. In 1923–1926, he was Luzin’s graduate student and was engaged in research on set theory, topology (the science of the general properties of mathematical spaces that are preserved under continuous transformations), and differential equations. First published work (in French) Contribution a la theory des ensembles homeomorphes (On the study of homeomorphic sets) was published in France, 1924. His next seven works, completed in the period 1924–1927, were also published in French in Western European (mainly French) scientific publications - a common practice of Soviet scientists at that time. Since 1928 he published mainly in domestic publications.

Upon returning to Moscow (late 1927), he was elected private associate professor at Moscow State University and a member of the Moscow Mathematical Society. I started teaching a course at Moscow State University on the theory of conformal mappings (transformations of space that preserve the magnitude of angles). Since 1927, he took up the problem of approximating functions of a complex variable (by simpler functions - polynomials), which is important for applications; the beginning of his research on the theory of quasi-conformal (close to conformal) mappings dates back to the same time, which was explained by the urgent needs of aerodynamics at increased speeds: a model of incompressible fluid, used at low flight speeds, is no longer valid.

In 1928, as part of the Soviet delegation, he participated in the International Mathematical Congress in Bologna (Italy) with a report on quasiconformal mappings.

In 1929 he became the head of the department and received the title of professor at the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology. In the same year he began working as a senior engineer at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after. Professor N.E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI). He was attracted here by the head of the theoretical department of TsAGI S.A. Chaplygin. These were the years of rapid flowering of aircraft construction and the formation of the theory of flight, research into the aerodynamics of wings, which affected the further topics of Lavrentiev’s research work. It was from this period, which lasted six years, that his work began directly in the field of applied mathematics. He attracted his students to TsAGI, and then colleagues M.V. Keldysh and L.I. Sedov. The interests of Lavrentiev and his group included such sections of hydro-aerodynamics as the theory of an oscillating wing, the movement of a wing under the surface of a heavy liquid, the impact of a solid body on water, the construction of a flow around an arc of a given shape, and a number of others. The results obtained were subsequently used, in particular, in solving the flutter problem. A general method was found for solving the problem of flow around thin airfoils of arbitrary shape; It is shown that a wing in the shape of a circular arc has the greatest lifting force. Applied problems stimulated further research on the theory of variational principles of conformal mappings. In 1935, Lavrentiev published (partially co-authored) 16 articles and abstracts, a monograph in 2 volumes, and a training course program.

In 1931 he became a professor at Moscow State University, connecting his life with the university for many years.

Without defending a dissertation (based on a set of scientific works), Lavrentyev was awarded the academic degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences in 1934, and in 1935 - Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. In the same year he became a senior researcher at the Mathematical Institute. V.A. Steklov of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he worked for more than 25 years. Lavrentiev’s influence on this scientific institution is still noticeable. From 1934 he headed the department of theory of functions and trained a large number of students who later became outstanding scientists, among them academician A.Yu. Ishlinsky, academician of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences A.I. Markushevich, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, academician of the Georgian Academy of Sciences A.V. Bitsadze. By the mid-1930s, Lavrentiev became the generally recognized head of the Soviet school of theory of functions of a complex variable.

In 1939, he was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (USSR Academy of Sciences) and director of the Mathematical Institute of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences, and moved to Kyiv. Here he studied the theory of functions of a complex variable and its applications. In Ukraine, Lavrentiev’s research related to the mechanics of explosion was begun, and a scientific school was created. He taught at Kiev University, professor (1939–1941 and 1945–1949), from 1941 to 1945 – head of the Mathematics Department of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

During the Second World War, together with the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Lavrentiev was evacuated to the Urals and Ufa. Continued research in the field of explosions. Assuming that at high temperatures materials behave like viscous liquids, he developed the hydrodynamic theory of cumulation (cumulative effect - an increase in the penetrating ability of a projectile, discovered in the second half of the 19th century, with its special device, such that when a projectile collides with an obstacle, a high-speed (cumulative) ) a jet of powder gases and melt products of a metal shell, burning through an obstacle). The research results, including the most important one - the depth of penetration of the jet into the obstacle, are presented in the article Shaped charge and principles of its operation, 1957. Successfully solved a number of military engineering problems, participated in the creation of a domestic cumulative projectile. When studying the characteristics of cumulation, the phenomenon of explosion welding of metals was discovered, which was widely used in the future.

Lavrentiev's attention was also attracted by the theory of long waves on the surface of a liquid under the action of gravity. Obtained the first proof of the existence of an exact solution to the soliton propagation equations (solitary surface wave) is given in the article Toward the theory of long waves, 1943, then in the article Until the theory(in Ukrainian), 1947 .

In February 1945 he returned from evacuation to Kyiv and became vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. He remained in this post until 1948.

In connection with the problem of sinking captured sea vessels, he studied the effects of an underwater explosion. He conducted an experimental test of the theory he developed at the academic base of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in the Kyiv suburb of Feofaniya. The formation of cumulative jets was discovered, which are formed when a cavity from the explosion products collapses in water. Published work Experience in calculating the influence of the depth of immersion of a bomb in a liquid on its destructive force, 1946. The idea of using cord charges based on “wet gunpowder” dates back to the same period, which turned out to be a suitable means for laying trenches, cutting metals, organizing directed explosions, etc.

Since 1948 he has been working at Moscow State University again. During this period, a new higher educational institution was created on the basis of Moscow State University - the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), which played an important role in training highly qualified personnel for new branches of science and technology that arose in the post-war years. At this institute, Lavrentiev founded a specialization in the theory of explosions and headed the department of physics of fast processes (1955–1958). Was engaged in directed explosions. The results are presented in the work About directional throwing of soil using an explosive, 1960.

He studied mixed-type equations that describe gas flows in regions of transition through the speed of sound, and proposed using a mixed-type model linear equation instead of the well-known Tricomi equation. In 1950 he published an article (co-authored with A.V. Bitsadze) On the problem of equations of mixed type.

In 1947 he made a report at a session of the USSR Academy of Sciences Paths of development of Soviet mathematics(published 1948). Particular attention was paid to computational mathematics and engineering. He called for the speedy creation of an institute of computer technology.

From 1951 to 1953 he was Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He attached great importance to this activity, paying exceptional attention to the development of the main directions of the then science, its specific connection with practice.

In 1957, together with academicians S.A. Khristianovich and S.L. Sobolev, he put forward the idea of creating scientific complexes in Siberia, in places of particularly intensive development of industry and agriculture. This idea was supported by a number of prominent scientists. On May 18, 1957, a government decision was made to create the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and Lavrentiev became its chairman. He headed the Siberian branch until 1975 (then he was Honorary Chairman). The Siberian branch has become widely known throughout the world and has established itself not only with a series of fundamental developments, but also with their application to the most vital tasks of the development of Siberia, the Far East and the European part of the country.

The Institute of Hydrodynamics (now named after M.A. Lavrentyev, IGiL) was the first to start working in the Siberian branch, the organizer and director of which was Lavrentyev. He was responsible for choosing the organizational structure of the institute, its scientific problems, giving them both exploratory and applied character, and determining the appropriate combination of fundamental research with national economic tasks. He headed the Institute until 1976.

In progress On one principle of creating traction force for movement(together with M.M. Lavrentiev, 1962) proposed a mechanical model (a flexible rod in a channel with rigid walls) to study the movement of snakes, fish, etc. He studied the dynamics of a nuclear explosion cloud and developed the theory of self-similar motion of turbulent vortex rings. Constructed new models of separated flow around bodies with an aft circulation zone. He was also interested in other problems: waves on water and extinguishing them with rain; the emergence and development of giant sea waves (tsunamis), fighting forest fires, preventing river pollution, construction ecology, the advantages of various electronic computing systems, organization of scientific research, teaching methods in higher and secondary schools, etc.

With the active participation of Lavrentiev, Novosibirsk State University was created (it was organized in 1958, the first academic year began in September 1959 with a lecture by Academician S.L. Sobolev). The basis for student practice was the scientific institutes of the Novosibirsk Academic Town. He lectured at Novosibirsk University, university professor 1959–1966.

In the Novosibirsk Academgorodok, first a specialized physics and mathematics boarding school, and then a chemical boarding school, and a club for young technicians were created. The official opening of the country's first specialized physics and mathematics boarding school (PMS) at Novosibirsk State University took place in January 1963.

Received the title of honorary citizen of Novosibirsk (1970).

Since 1976 he worked in Moscow again. In 1976–1980 Chairman of the USSR National Committee for Theoretical and Applied Mathematics.

He has written a number of monographs and textbooks.

For outstanding services in the development of science and organization of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (1967). Awarded five Orders of Lenin (1953, 1956, 1960, 1967, 1975), the Order of the October Revolution (1970), four Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1945, 1948, 1953, 1954), the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree (1944), and the Order of the Legion of Honor Commander degree (the highest award in France, 1971), medals.

530 works of Lavrentiev are known (scientific and journalistic articles, reviews, reviews, monographs, textbooks, essays on memoirs, etc.) Many of his students became outstanding scientists.

Essays: Basics of the calculus of variations. In 2 parts. M. – Leningrad, ONTI, 1935 (co-author: L.A. Lyusternik); Course in calculus of variations. M. - L., ONTI, 1938 (co-author: L.A. Lyusternik); Conformal mappings with applications to some problems in mechanics. M. – L., GTTI, 1946; Variational method in boundary value problems for systems of equations of elliptic type. M., Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1962; Methods of the theory of functions of a complex variable, 4th ed., M., 1973 (co-author: B.V. Shabat); Problems of hydrodynamics and their mathematical models. 2nd ed., M., 1977 (co-author: B.V. Shabat); Selected works. Mathematics and mechanics. M., Nauka, 1990.

Andrey Bogdanov

Lavrentyev Mikhail Alekseevich: biography, scientific works, achievements and interesting facts. Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentiev Excerpt characterizing Lavrentiev, Mikhail Alekseevich

M.A. Lavrentiev graduated from Kazan University in 1922. He belonged to the galaxy of students of Academician N.N. Luzin, which amounted to in the 30-40s. core of the Moscow mathematical school...

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