Aleksandr Mikhailovich Lyapunov

Lyanpunov's father was an astronomer of some note at the University of Kazan in Imperial Russia. At the time the Unversity was headed by Nikolai Lobachevski, the inventor of non-Euclidian geometry. However when Lobachevski resigned (or was dismissed?) in 1846 the elder Lyapunov gave up his researches and retired to his wife's estate. Lyapunov and his two brothers -- one a composer and the other a member of the Academy of Sciences for his studies in slavic languages -- were initially schooled by their parents at this estate.

After the death of his father, Lyapunov's schooling continued under his uncle; his classmate in these studies, his uncle's daughter and Lyapunov's first cousin, was to become his wife. Lyapunov attended gymnasium in Nizhny Novgorod where he was a schoomate of Markov.

In 1876 Lyapunov entered St. Petersburg University, initally attending chemistry lectures by the inventor of the periodic table Mendeleev. However within six months Lyapunov began studying mathematics under Chebysev. His earliest researches dealt with hydrostatics and in particular with the characteristics of rotating fluids. This research interest extended throughout his career, leading to fundamental results on the stability of differential equations, potential theory and to our understanding of celestial bodies.

Lyapunov's interest in probabililty grew out his duties as an instructor. He was the first to prove the modern version of the Central Limit Theorem, inventing technieques that are fundamental to the study of probability to this day. However, these results were unpublished untl 1906 and were not generally recognized outside Russia until much later.

Lyapunov's last years of life were marked by tragedy. By 1918 Russia was in the midst of a civil war and living conditions were generally hard. Worse, Lyapunov had become partially blind and his wife's health, long precarious due to tuberculosis, was deteriorating rapidly. Lyapunov and his wife left St. Petersburg to be with his brother in Odessa, When his wife died, Lyapunov shot himself later that day. He died three days later.

Lyapunov's many contributions to mathematics and physics were recognized with memberships in the Académie des Sciences, the Accademia dei Lincei and honory professorships and universities in Kazan, Kharkov and St. Petersburg. The formerSoviet Union issued a stamp honoring Lyapunov on the centennial of this birth.

Born: 6 June 1857 in Yaroslavl, Russia
Died: 3 Nov 1918 in Odessa, Russia