Boris Zakharovich Vulikh

(1913 - 1978)

Русская версия

Boris Zakharovich Vulikh headed the Chair of Mathematical Analysis from 1964 to 1978. He was a representative of a family where teaching mathematics was traditional (see a page dedicated to his family). His grandfather had taught at the famous Lycee, his father had worked at the Pedagogical Institute. B.Z.Vulikh himself was connected with Herzen Pedagogical Institute for many years. For sixteen years he was a military man: he began his military service at 1941 at the Leningrad front and finished it as the head of the Chair of Mathematics of the Naval Academy.
        Like many other Leningrad mathematicians of that period Vulikh was a pupil of G.M.Fikhtengol'ts. His main results concerned the branch of functional analysis founded in the 30s by L.V.Kantorovich, namely, the theory of partially ordered spaces. A great series of his works is devoted to the problem of analytical representation of different classes of operators and functionals. Also he is the author of an interesting concept of a "K-normed space" where a numeric norm is attached not only to separate elements, but also to their "complexes".
        The great authority of B.Z.Vulikh among specialists on functional analysis is due mainly to his works on the theory of realization of vector lattices. The representation of a vector lattice as a space of continuous functions is now regarded as the foundation of this branch of functional analysis. But the theory of realization was formed by works of mathematicians from different countries working independently and even separately on account of the World War II. At our country this theory was in fact created by Vulikh. The scientific heritage left by Vulikh is quite great. Besides the above mentioned things, it includes works on the theory of self-adjoint operators, on the geometry of cones, on the theory of partial multiplications in vector lattices (he started studying partial multiplications long before they appeared in general algebra) and many others. He wrote a number of monographs and handbooks. The most known monograph by Vulikh is "Introduction to the theory of semi-ordered spaces". Great scientific and methodological merits of his books favoured their international popularity. These books were published in many countries and in many languages.
        Vulikh was a talented teacher and organizer. The seminar on the theory of semi-ordered spaces founded by him in the 50s became at once the center of all researches of Leningrad mathematicians in this area and attracted many mathematicians from different cities of our country and from abroad.

References.

  • G P Akilov, D A Vladimirov, L V Kantorovich and I P Natanson. Boris Zakharovich Vulikh (on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday). Russ. Math. Surv. 18, 193 (1963).
  • A I Veksler, D A Vladimirov, M K Gavurin, L V Kantorovich, S M Lozinskii, A G Pinsker and D K Faddeev. Boris Zakharovich Vulikh (obituary). Russian Mathematical Surveys, 1979, 34:4, 145-150.
     
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    Last updated:  28.03.03