Pafnuty Lvovich Chebyshev

Chebyshev was a prolific mathematician, making contributions to number theory, probability and integration. His doctoral dissertation, defended 1849, dealt with the theory of congruencies. From his earliest studies Chebyshev aimed for an international reputation, publishing many papers in French and travelling extensively in Europe. He objected to being called a "splendid Russian mathematician" saying that he was surely a "worldwide mathematician."

In addition to his interest in mathematics, Chebyshev was interested in mechanical systems and their properties. This interest led to investigations into approximation theory and the invention of Chebyshev polynomials -- the first investigation of orthogonal polynomials.

In 1867 Chebyshev published a paper "On Mean Values" in which he formulated the inequality known today by his name. At the same he published a paper that generalized the strong law of large numbers. Twenty years later he published "On two theorems concerning probability" which provides the basis for applying probability to the analysis of statistical data. .The same paper generalized the central limit theorm of de Moivre and Laplace, making them more useful to statisticians.

By the end of his career, Chebyshev had achieved the international recognition he had always sought. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of London, the Berlin Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy of Sciences and was awarded the French Légion d'Honneur. The former Soviet Union honored Chebyshev with the following stamp issued on the 125th anniversary of his birth.

Born: 16 May 1821 in Okatovo, Russia
Died: 8 Dec 1894 in St Petersburg, Russia