Ivan Georgievich
Petrovsky
1901-1973
Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky was the Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Rector of the Moscow State Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the Lomonosov University. He successfully graduated from Moscow State University in 1927, and remained there in graduate school, from which he graduated in 1930. All the rest of his life he worked at this university: since 1929 as an assistant, associate professor, since 1933 – a professor, since 1935 – the Head of the Department of Differential Equations. He created his most famous scientific works and obtained fundamental results in various fields of mathematics: in algebraic geometry, probability theory, theory of ordinary differential equations, mathematical physics, theory of partial differential equations. In 1939 he was elected the Dean of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Lomonosov Moscow State University. In the period 1943-1945 he conducted fundamental research on the conditions of existence and correctness of the Cauchy problem, deepened research on the dependence of the solution of this problem on the initial data (the lacunae problem). This method, created by Petrovsky in the course of theoretical research, has received wide practical application. At the same time, he solved a number of special problems of mathematical physics, such as, for example, the problem of Rayleigh wave propagation. In the second half of the 1940s he was involved in the work on the creation of atomic weapons in the USSR. In particular, he made calculations on the process of compression of the atomic bomb charge and calculation of its efficiency. In 1949-1951 he was the Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In May 1951 he was the appointed rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University, remaining in this post until the last day of his life. During the years of his leadership, the university created a unique campus on the Lenin Hills in Moscow, created new departments, faculties, laboratories.
Address: Moscow, Leninskie Gory microdistrict, 1
