The Legacy of Vladimir Andreevich Steklov in Mathematical Physics: Work and School

摘要

The 150th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Russian mathematician Vladimir Andreevich Steklov falls on 9 January 2014. All over the world, active researchers in all areas of mathematics know his name. Indeed, well-known mathematical institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and St. Petersburg are named after Steklov. This commemorates that he was the founding father of their predecessor: the Physical-Mathematical Institute, established in 1921 in starving Petrograd (the Civil War still persisted in some corners of what would become the USSR the next year). Steklov was the first director of the institute, until his untimely death on 30 May 1926.