Olga Ladyzhenskaya
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Olga Ladyzhenskaya
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Ladyzhenskaya in 1976
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| Born |
Olga Aleksandrovna Ladyzhenskaya
March 7, 1922 |
| Died | January 12, 2004 (aged 81) |
| Nationality | Soviet–Russian |
| Alma mater | Moscow University |
| Known for | Fluid dynamics of the Navier-Stokes equations, Hilbert’s nineteenth problem, partial differential equations |
| Awards | Lomonosov Gold Medal (2002) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Partial differential equations |
| Institutions | Saint Petersburg University |
| Doctoral advisor | Ivan Petrovsky Sergei Sobolev |
| Notable students | Nina Uralt’seva Ludwig Faddeev Vladimir Buslaev |
Olga Aleksandrovna Ladyzhenskaya (Russian: Óльга Алекса́ндровна Лады́женская) ; 7 March 1922 – 12 January 2004) was a Russian mathematician. She was known for her work on partial differential equations (especially Hilbert’s nineteenth problem) and fluid dynamics.[1] She provided the first rigorous proofs of the convergence of a finite difference method for the Navier–Stokes equations. She was a student of Ivan Petrovsky[2] and was awarded the Lomonosov Gold Medal in 2002.
Biography
Ladyzhenskaya was born and grew up in the small town of Kologriv, the daughter of a mathematics teacher who is credited with her early inspiration and love of mathematics. In October 1939 her father was arrested by the NKVD and soon killed. She finished high school, but, because her father was an “enemy of the people“, she was not admitted to Leningrad University.
After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, Ladyzhenskaya presented her doctoral thesis and was given the degree she had long before earned. She went on to teach at the university in Leningrad and at the Steklov Institute. She continued to teach after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rapid salary deflation for professors.
Ladyzhenskaya was on the shortlist for potential recipients for the 1958 Fields Medal,[3] ultimately awarded to Klaus Roth and René Thom.
