Aleksandr Kronrod facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Aleksandr Kronrod
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| Born |
Aleksandr Semyonovich Kronrod
October 22, 1921 |
| Died | October 6, 1986 (aged 64) Moscow, Soviet Union
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| Nationality | Russian |
| Alma mater | Moscow State University |
| Known for | Mathematics, computer science, economics, medicine |
| Awards | Stalin Prize Order of the Red Banner of Labour |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) Moscow Pedagogical Institute |
| Doctoral advisor | Nikolai Luzin |
| Doctoral students | Yevgeniy Landis |
Aleksandr Semyonovich Kronrod (Russian: Алекса́ндр Семёнович Кронро́д; October 22, 1921 – October 6, 1986) was a brilliant Soviet mathematician and computer scientist. He is famous for the Gauss–Kronrod quadrature formula, which he shared in 1964. Before that, he worked on solving tough problems in physics using computers.
Kronrod also helped with economics in the Soviet Union. He suggested ways to improve how prices were set. Later in his life, he focused on medicine, especially helping people with serious cancer. Many remember Kronrod for his amazing personality. He was admired as a student, a teacher, and a leader.
He wrote several well-known books, including "Conversations on Programming". One person who wrote about Kronrod said he shared his ideas freely. He truly believed that the person who made an idea happen deserved the credit.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Kronrod was born in Moscow. He studied math with D. O. Shklyarsky in school. In 1938, he joined the math department at Moscow State University. He did his first independent math work as a freshman. This was with Professor Alexander Gelfond.
Kronrod was a very talented student. He won the first prize from the Moscow Mathematical Society. He was the only person to win this award twice.
During World War II, he was first not allowed to join the army. This was because graduate students were usually exempt. But he helped build trenches around Moscow. Later, he joined the army and served twice. He was injured both times. He received several medals, including the Order of the Red Star. His second injury in 1943 kept him in the hospital for a year. He left the army in 1944. This injury affected him for the rest of his life.
Kronrod got married around this time, and his son was born. For the next four years, he continued his studies at the university. He also worked at the Kurchatov Institute, which focused on atomic energy. There, he decided to switch from pure math to using computers to solve math problems.
In his last year of college, Kronrod studied with Nikolai Luzin. Luzin taught many of the Soviet Union's best scientists. Kronrod and Georgy Adelson-Velsky were friends and Luzin's last students. Kronrod also led extra classes for younger math students. He made his students do exercises and even prove basic math rules themselves. This was unusual for the time. Fewer students stayed, but those who did, like Robert Minlos and Anatoli Vitushkin, learned a lot. Vitushkin described Kronrod as "witty and friendly." Kronrod asked his students to call him "Sasha." Many saw him as a visionary in his field. His special study group met from 1946 to 1953.
Kronrod taught at the Moscow State Pedagogical University. Evgenii Landis was one of his students and helped write about his life. In the 1960s, Kronrod also worked on improving math education in high schools. He organized courses and new teaching methods.
A Pioneer in Computers
Kronrod played a key role in building the first big Russian computer, called Relay Computer RVM-1. However, he often said his colleague N.I. Bessonov was the only inventor.
At the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) in Moscow, Kronrod worked with physicists like Isaak Pomeranchuk and Lev Landau. He helped them find numerical solutions for problems in theoretical physics. For this work, he received the Stalin Prize and the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.
In 1955, he first used an electronic computer. This was at the Krzhizhanovsky laboratory. It later became the Institute for Electronic Control Machines.
Kronrod led the math department at ITEP. His team was able to get better results than other groups outside the USSR. This was even though other groups had much faster machines. For example, they were five hundred times faster than those at CERN in Geneva. If a request for a computer calculation came in, his team would first check if it could be solved in a simpler way. The equipment was kept in excellent condition, and there were almost no breakdowns. If a program ran for more than ten minutes, it had to be re-checked.
program written by (a male name)
coded by (a female name)
coding checked by (a female name)
punched by (a female name)
punching checked by (a female name)
Kronrod valued accuracy very much. He believed that women were more accurate than men in computer tasks like coding and punching cards. He hired women for these roles at ITEP. He thought that male scientists needed to focus on thinking, not on operating the computers. The women worked alongside the men on input and quality checks. For every month without an error, they received a 20% raise in salary.
He used computers to help with the Soviet Union's planned economy. He also used them for cancer research. He worked with Leonid Kantorovich on a government committee. They calculated the country's material costs to help set fair prices. Kronrod's student V. D. Belkin continued this important work. In the 1960s, at the Gertsen cancer research institute, Kronrod and his student P. E. Kunin studied lung cancer and pneumonia. Their goal was to help doctors decide when surgery was needed.
Exploring Artificial Intelligence
Kronrod was very interested in artificial intelligence, which was called "heuristic programming" in the USSR. He is famous for saying, "chess is the Drosophila of artificial intelligence." This quote is even on the American Association for Artificial Intelligence's chess website. It means that chess is a great simple model to study AI, much like the fruit fly (Drosophila) is used in biology.
In 1965, ITEP's computer chess program challenged an American program called Kotok-McCarthy. In 1966–1967, the ITEP program won. The developers included Adelson-Velsky. They used a search method by Alexander Brudno and a "general recursive search scheme" by Kronrod. Russian chess master A.R. Bitman and world champion Mikhail Botvinnik advised them. This was an early test of different computer search strategies in chess.
Kronrod's work on chess programs caused some issues. The physicists at ITEP complained. They thought the lab was being used for games. But Kronrod's division was using games like Crazy Eights and chess to teach machines how to "think."
End of a Career
In 1968, the Communist Party criticized Kronrod. This was because he signed a letter with many mathematicians. The letter defended Alexander Esenin-Volpin, a mathematician and logician. Because of this, the physicists were able to remove Kronrod from ITEP. He also lost his teaching job.
He then led a math lab at the Central Scientific Research Institute of Patent Information. There, he suggested changes to patent laws to encourage new inventions. He gained support for his ideas, but then a new director who disagreed with him took over. Kronrod lost this position. His last job was leading a lab that processed drilling data for gas and oil exploration. But this work did not challenge him. He thought about his goals and soon changed his path.
Helping Others Through Medicine
Kronrod decided his most important work was to help others, especially those who were very ill. He spent his own money developing a substance called milil. This was made from a sour milk extract. It was for cancer patients. It was meant to help with a shortage of anabol, an expensive drug from Bulgaria. He was promised a lab for testing on animals, but he never got it. So, he tested milil on himself.
Kronrod did not have a medical degree, but he knew a lot about medicine. Milil was used as a last hope for very sick patients. Doctors gave it to patients in a hospital ward set aside for Kronrod's method. Kronrod himself never gave the drug directly to patients. He gave it away for free through doctors.
The drug was not officially approved. A legal case was started against him. But then, a relative of the person who brought the case needed milil for treatment. The case was then dropped, and Kronrod got his research records back.
Kronrod slowly recovered after a stroke affected his speech, reading, and writing. But he had to leave his job and stop all his math work. He saved his own life after a second stroke by asking to be soaked in very hot water for several hours. He passed away on October 6, 1986, after a third stroke.
