Israel Gelfand facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Israïl Moiseevich Gelfand
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| Born | September 2, 1913 Okny, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire
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| Died | October 5, 2009 (aged 96) New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
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| Citizenship | Soviet Union American |
| Alma mater | Moscow State University |
| Known for | Group theory Integral geometry Mathematical analysis Representation theory Gelfand–Levitan–Marchenko integral equation Gelfand-Pettis integral Gelfand representation Gelfand–Naimark theorem Liouville–Bratu–Gelfand equation |
| Awards | Order of Lenin (three times) ForMemRS (1977) Wolf Prize (1978) Wigner Medal (1980) Kyoto Prize in Mathematical Sciences (1989) AMS Steele Prize (2005) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematician |
| Institutions | Moscow State University Rutgers University |
| Doctoral advisor | Andrey Kolmogorov |
| Doctoral students | Georgy Adelson-Velsky Felix Berezin Joseph Bernstein Victor Ginzburg Alexander Goncharov Tanya Khovanova Alexandre Kirillov Georgiy Shilov Endre Szemerédi Andrei Zelevinsky Vitalii Ditkin |
Israel Moiseevich Gelfand (born September 2, 1913 – died October 5, 2009) was a very important mathematician. He was from the Soviet Union and later became an American citizen. Gelfand made huge contributions to many areas of mathematics. These included group theory, representation theory, and functional analysis.
He received many important awards, like the Order of Lenin and the first Wolf Prize. He was also a professor at Moscow State University. Later, he moved to the United States and taught at Rutgers University. Many of his students became famous mathematicians themselves.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Israel Gelfand was born in a small town called Okny in what is now Ukraine. His family was Jewish. He had a very unusual path to becoming a mathematician.
Gelfand said he was kicked out of high school. This happened because his father owned a mill. He didn't go to high school or even college. Instead, he went straight to postgraduate studies at Moscow State University when he was just 19. His teacher there was a famous mathematician named Andrey Kolmogorov. Gelfand earned his PhD in 1935.
In 1989, Gelfand moved to the United States.
Gelfand's Mathematical Work
Gelfand is famous for many important ideas and discoveries in mathematics. He wrote a book called Calculus of Variations with Sergei Fomin. He also developed Gelfand's formula, which helps understand how numbers behave in certain mathematical systems.
He created the Gelfand representation and the Gelfand–Mazur theorem. These are key ideas in a part of math called Banach algebra theory. He also worked on the Gelfand–Naimark theorem and the Gelfand–Naimark–Segal construction.
Gelfand made big contributions to representation theory. This area helps mathematicians understand complex structures by breaking them down into simpler parts. He also worked on integral geometry, which deals with measuring geometric objects.
From 1945 to 1989, Gelfand led a special seminar at Moscow State University. This seminar covered many different math topics. It was a very important place for many young mathematicians to learn and grow. When he moved to the US, the seminar continued at Rutgers University.
Influence Beyond Mathematics
Gelfand's work wasn't just important for pure mathematics. His ideas also helped in other fields.
- Physics: The Gelfand–Tsetlin basis is a tool used a lot in theoretical physics. It came from his work on how groups of numbers behave.
- Biology and Medicine: Gelfand was interested in cell biology. He even organized a research seminar on this topic. He published some works related to biology and medicine.
- Education: He cared a lot about teaching mathematics. He worked on "correspondence education," which means teaching students through mail or online. For this work, he received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1994.
Personal Life
Gelfand was married to Zorya Shapiro. They had two sons, Sergei and Vladimir, who live in the United States. Their third son, Aleksandr, passed away from leukemia. After divorcing his first wife, Gelfand married Tatiana, and they had a daughter named Tatiana. He had four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Gelfand also cared about animal rights. He became a vegetarian in 1994 and a vegan in 2000.
Honors and Awards
Israel Gelfand received many honors and awards for his amazing work.
- He was given the Order of Lenin three times. This was a very high award in the Soviet Union.
- In 1977, he became a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in the UK.
- He won the Wolf Prize in 1978, which is a major award in mathematics.
- In 1989, he received the Kyoto Prize in Mathematical Sciences.
- He was also a MacArthur Fellow in 1994.
Gelfand was the president of the Moscow Mathematical Society from 1968 to 1970. He was also chosen as a foreign member of many important groups, including the U.S. National Academy of Science. In 2003, The New York Times called him "among the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century."
Death
Israel Gelfand passed away on October 5, 2009. He was 96 years old. He died at a hospital near his home in Highland Park, New Jersey.
See also
In Spanish: Izrail Guelfand para niños
- Gelfand duality
- Gelfand-Levitan-Marchenko equation
- Gelfand pair
- Gelfand mapping
- Gelfand ring
- Gelfand triple
- Anti-cosmopolitan campaign
